Bombay HC grants bail to BEST bus driver in Bhandup crash that killed four

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to Santosh Ramesh Sawant (52), the driver arrested after a BEST electric bus accident near Bhandup railway station. Four people died and 12 were injured in the accident. The court said the defence's argument that the driver may never have received the required training to drive an electric bus appeared to have merit prima facie.

Justice Shyam Chandak granted Sawant bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and sureties.

During the hearing, Sawant's lawyer, Devendra Patil, argued that his client had been given charge of the electric bus without the necessary training. Refusing the responsibility could have invited disciplinary action and put his job at risk, he said.

The court also took note of a letter of January 7 from BEST's depot manager to the police. The letter said BEST had no certificate showing that Sawant had been trained to drive an electric bus, and that his name was not on the list of trained drivers. Even so, he had been assigned to drive an electric bus on route number 606 from December 1, 2025.

The prosecution accused Sawant of negligence and rash driving. It alleges that he lost control of the bus on the west side of Bhandup railway station and that it rammed into pedestrians standing at a bus stop.

The court also noted that Sawant has worked with BEST since 2011 and has no record of any earlier accident. It recorded that there are 56 witnesses in the case, so the trial is not expected to end soon. Keeping all this in mind, the High Court granted bail.

The accident took place on the night of December 29, 2025, when an electric bus made by Olectra Greentech, operated by BEST, hit people on the road. Bhandup police arrested driver Santosh Sawant and registered a case against him under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Motor Vehicles Act. After the accident, questions have been raised over how BEST trains its electric bus drivers and over its decision to run the service without trained drivers.