IndiGo engineer stays with mother inside Noida bus, both die

NOIDA: The last thing 28-year-old Shashank Gupta told the bus driver was that he would step off the burning vehicle only after his mother did. He never got the chance.Late on Wednesday night, a private AC sleeper bus (BR32PA8647) bound from Kashmere Gate in Delhi to Mahoba caught fire near the 33km milestone of Yamuna Expressway in Jewar.By the time the flames were doused, nine of the 35 people aboard were dead. 26 passengers, both drivers and the conductor, made it out alive. Shashank and his mother Sunita Gupta (47) did not.Their badly burnt bodies were identified on Friday, not by their faces, but by what survived of them. Family members recognised Sunita by her height and Shashank by a ring he wore.The two had boarded the bus, operated by Raj Kalpana Travels, almost by accident.