Woman tries to stop husband’s bus, falls, dies. Unaware, he drives away

A 30-year-old woman died in mysterious circumstances after she tried to stop her husband’s Mumbai-bound bus, in which he had brought migrant workers home in Hazaribagh, police said on Friday.

Kunti Devi did not want her husband Basudev Mahto to go back to Mumbai, fearing the rise in coronavirus cases there, and tried to stop the bus.

While the husband was revving up the bus engine to leave, she accidently fell on the ground and died, police said.

The incident took place at Sarukudar village in Hazaribag’s Vishnugarh block around 5pm yesterday. However, police were informed about the incident around 10pm at night.

Mahto, who works as a bus driver in Mumbai, brought 25 Jharkhand migrant workers to Hazaribagh. After dropping the passengers at a quarantine centre, he went to meet his parents, wife and the two children at Sarukudar village.

Pramod Kumar Sinha, Bishnugarh police station in-charge, said that during questioning of few witnesses and villagers on Thursday night they came to know that the wife was not ready to let her husband return to Mumbai and had become adamant.

Mahto reportedly did not stop after the incident. “Since we got the information late and did not have the number of the bus, we could not stop it. He could not be reached on his mobile,” Sinha said. The officer added that they are investigating to find out the location of Mahto in Mumbai.

“My wife was not ready to let me go back to Mumbai. I told her that I would come back in a week after bringing another lot of migrant workers from there. But she was not ready to listen. She said either I allow her to come along or give my mobile to her,” Mahto told police.

“The argument continued and I took over the driver’s seat. As I got ready to leave, she got inside the bus. Anyhow, I got her down from the bus. I thought she went back home. But, she came in front of my bus. I could not hear her. As the vehicle began moving, she fell on the ground. I never thought that she would die,” Mahto told police.

A section of the villagers, however, alleged that Mahto crushed her wife to death.

“We did not find any sign that the woman was crushed. There was head injury and prima facie it seemed a case of accident,” he said.

Hundreds of migrant labourers are returning to Jharkhand everyday by trains and buses. As per the government records, 1.5 lakh migrant workers and students stranded outside the state have returned to Jharkhand since interstate movement of trains and buses was allowed by the Centre on April 29.

Around seven lakh migrant workers have registered with the state government to return home.