Five Maruti Suzuki Officials Chargesheeted After A Car Fire Killed Mother & Toddler In Bangalore

Police officials have filed a chargesheet and named the accused in it, a little over a year after a woman and her child were burnt to death inside their Maruti Suzuki Ritz. The chargesheet filed by the Whitefield police in Bangalore has charged five employees of Maruti Suzuki India Limited and eight employees of Kalyani Motors' service station in Kundalahalli, Bangalore.

On February 02, 2018, 34-year-old Neha Verma and her four-year-old son were last seen driving their Maruti Suzuki Ritz back into their apartment's basement. The guards then heard an explosion and rushed into the basement to find the car in flames.

The fire services were summoned and it was only after the fire was put out that the guards realised that Neha and her son were inside the car. The car was charred and so were the interiors. The handbrake was engaged which meant that the car had come to a complete stop when it burst into flames.

But the fumes inside the cabin might have made the mother-son duo unconscious and hence they couldn't get out of the car. Neha's husband Rajesh Ghatanatti alleged that the staff at Kalyani Motors Service Centre in Kundalahalli were negligent during the car's last service and filed a complaint against them.

The legal system took over a year to investigate the case and the chargesheet has finally been filed. The 13 people have been booked under IPC Section 304A (causing death due to negligence) on the basis of forensic reports, witness statements and investigation findings.

According to the chargesheet, the fire was caused by a short in the power window circuit and the fire then spread across through the wiring harness, eventually setting fire to the entire car. The chargesheet was quoted as saying, "Accused 1 to 5 who were employed in the manufacturing unit didn't take adequate safety measures regarding the spares and power window and due to this, there was a short circuit in the car eight years later."

Thoughts On Maruti Suzuki Officials Chargesheeted For Car Fire That Killed Mother & Son

Details of the investigation have not been revealed, so we cannot comment if it was actually a bad service experience that caused the fire. However, we can definitely say that it cannot be a manufacturing fault as the car ran perfectly fine for eight years (It was manufactured in 2010). Maruti Suzuki has not issued an official statement regarding this particular case and neither have any top officials commented on it.

Source: Teambhp