Mike on Crime

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BHUBANESHWAR, India — Police say a poor Indian worker and his four-year-old daughter were crushed to death by a bus after the conductor pushed them off for not having the fare for the journey.

Police officer Suresh Mishra says the bus conductor, who collects the fares, was arrested and charged with unintentional murder.

A conviction would carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Sanschar Toppo, 40, was 25 cents short of the fare when he got on the bus with his daughter.

He got into an argument with the conductor, which escalated until Toppo and the girl were pushed out of the moving bus, Mishra said.

After the incident on Wednesday, angry passengers set the bus on fire near Jharsuguda, a village about 320 kilometres west of Bhubaneshwar, the capital of eastern Orissa state, Mishra said.