A three-year-old boy was charred to death and seven others were severely injured when a bus carrying 30 passengers travelling from Shirdi to Hyderabad caught fire after a short circuit.
The incident occurred at Humnabad in Karnataka near the border of Telangana on Friday morning.
The injured are reportedly out of danger.
The incident occurred at around 6 am when a Kaveri Travels sleeper coach bus caught fire as the electronics short circuited, causing a fire in the engine and eventually the whole bus.
The passengers were still asleep when the fire broke out. The driver and the conductor fled the burning bus, and workers from a nearby fast food joint had to break the windows and rescue the passengers.
A family from Hyderabad had gone to Shirdi last Wednesday and was returning home via the bus. Amid the chaos and confusion, they left 3-year-old Vihar inside. He died on the spot of severe burn injuries.
The rest of the injured were treated at a hospital in Humnabad and are out of danger.
At first, fears and speculations led to the notion that the bus could have been set ablaze deliberately as part of the ongoing riots in Karnataka. However, Bidar district SP Prakash Nigam confirmed that the cause of the accident was a short circuit near the engine. The police also found out that the private bus did not receive any road fitness validation certificate.
A case has been booked against the management in the Bidar PS.