Skeletal remains of an ill fated after being involved in one of the deadliest road accidents in Andhra Pradesh in recent years, when the private sleeper bus bound for Bengaluru from Hyderabad turned into a moving fireball at Chinna Tekuru village in Kalluru mandal of Kurnool district on October 24, 2025, killing at least 19 people and leaving several others injured, four of them critically.
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
The motorist, whose bike collided with the ill-fated private bus at Chinna Tekur in Kurnool leaving 19 passengers charred to death, was drunk, police confirmed on Sunday (October 26, 2025).
“The Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL) at Kurnool had submitted its report confirming that the bike rider, B. Shiva Shankar, was drunk,” Superintendent of Police Vikrant Patil said. The SP said that the viscera samples have traces of alcohol as per the RFSL report.
The private sleeper bus from Hyderabad to Bengaluru went up in flames after hitting a bike that was lying on the road in the early hours of Friday (October 24, 2025). The bike was driven by B. Shiva Shankar of Kurnool. His bike skidded off the road and hit the road divider, throwing him off the vehicle, which resulted in his death. Even before his friend Erriswamy, who was riding pillion, could try to remove the bike from the road, the bus collided with it and erupted in flames.
Police on Saturday (October 25, 2025) verified the CCTV footage from various places on the highway, toll gate and petrol filling stations as part of their investigation. In the footage from a HP filling station, they found Shiva Shankar and his friend entering the HP petrol filling station near Kia Showroom where they filled fuel worth ₹300.
The duo entered the petrol filling station at around 2.24 p.m., waited for the staff, walked out of the premises for a few minutes and then left the place after filling petrol and the same was recorded in the CCTVs at the petrol filling station. The duo initially went to the third petrol filling pump where there was no staff. From there, he drove the bike in a rash manner and almost fell down but managed to balance.
A few minutes after leaving the filling station, Shiva Shankar fell down, the police said.
Published – October 26, 2025 02:50 pm IST
