A moving sleeper bus caught fire on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway on Wednesday night, resulting in the death of two and injuring over a dozen, said police. 

Video footage from the scene showed the bus engulfed in flames, with plumes of smoke rising into the night sky. The cause of the fire was not known immediately.

The incident took place around 8:30 pm near the Jharsa flyover on the main carriageway from Delhi to Jaipur, said Fire Department Deputy Director Gulshan Kalra.

“Three fire engines were rushed to the spot after we received information that a sleeper bus with registration number AR 01 K 7707 had caught fire on the carriageway,” the officer told news agency PTI.

Gurugram’s Civil Hospital’s Dr Manav confirmed seven injured are undergoing treatment at the facility.

“All injured have suffered 30 to 50 per cent burns but are stable,” he said.

The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, examining the “cash-for-query” allegations against Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, has recommended her expulsion from Parliament in a 500-page report accessed by NDTV. She has been asked to appear before the panel tomorrow.

A look back at the case so far:

BJP’s Nishikant Dubey demanded Mahua Moitra’s immediate suspension from Parliament last month, accusing her of taking bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in the House to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Adani group. He wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla highlighting Ms Moitra’s alleged breach of parliamentary privilege, contempt of House, and criminal conspiracy.

Between 2019 and 2023, 50 of the 61 questions asked by Ms Moitra were at the behest of Darshan Hiranandani, Mr Dubey alleged, adding that the MP gave Mr Hiranandani access to her Lok Sabha account for him to directly post the questions. Mr Dubey cited “painstaking research” by advocate Jai Anand Dehadrai, who approached the CBI with some of his allegations.

Mahua Moitra rubbished all allegations against her, labelling Mr Dehadrai as a “jilted ex”. Mr Dehadrai, in a letter to the Delhi Police, claimed he anticipated “a very serious threat to his life” because of his complaint. He claimed a direct attempt was made to coerce him into withdrawing his complaint.

Nishikant Dubey’s complaint to Speaker Om Birla was referred to the Ethics Panel of Parliament, which called Nishikant Dubey and Jai Anand Dehadrai for a hearing.

In the meantime, Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani, in an explosive affidavit, claimed that Ms Moitra had indeed shared her parliament credentials with him to frame and post questions on the Adani group, which she felt was the “only way” to target PM Modi.

Mr Hiranandani further claimed that Ms Moitra was “dominating”, “ambitious”, and demanded several “favours”, including expensive luxury items, “providing support for the renovation of her officially allotted bungalow in Delhi”, and travel and holiday expenses. He said he gave in to her demands to retain their friendship and her support.

The affidavit was shredded by Ms Moitra, who alleged that the Prime Minister’s office “held a proverbial gun” to Mr Hiranandani’s head to make him sign the white paper that was “leaked to the press”.

However, just a day later, Mr Hiranandani, in an interview with a news channel, insisted that he had not filed the affidavit under any pressure. In the interview, the businessman said he spoke up since the “cash-for-query” allegations named him “directly and personally” and admitted that he used Mahua Moitra’s parliamentary login ID and password to post questions from Dubai.

The controversy took a surprising turn when Mahua Moitra admitted that she did share her parliament login ID and password with Mr Hiranandani. She also admitted to receiving gifts but said that the only things she got from Mr Hiranandani were “one scarf, some lipsticks, and other makeup items including eye shadow”. Ms Moitra, however, denied taking bribes from him and demanded that she be given the chance to cross-examine him.

The firebrand MP refused to appear before the Ethics Committee on October 31, the first summons she got. Explaining her stance, Ms Moitra said, “Chairman, Ethics Comm announced my 31/10 summons on live TV way before the official letter was emailed to me at 19:20 hours. All complaints and suo moto affidavits were also released to the media. I look forward to deposing immediately after my pre-scheduled constituency programmes end on November 4.” She called it a “selective leak of a plea bargain” and said it was part of the establishment’s “witch hunt into every political leader who dares question Adani”.

She finally appeared before the panel on November 2 but staged a walkout along with the Opposition MPs, questioning the way the meeting was conducted and accusing the panel of subjecting her to “proverbial vastraharan (stripping)” in a letter to the Speaker. The panel shot back saying she did not cooperate and left in order to avoid answering more questions.

The ethics committee chief Vinod Sonkar said Ms Moitra did not cooperate during her cross-examination. “Objectionable words were used against the panel’s functioning and me,” he said. Another panel member, Aparajita Sarangi, said Ms Moitra “behaved in an angry, arrogant manner when asked about Darshan Hiranandani’s affidavit”. But the Opposition MPs alleged that the committee asked “personal and unethical questions” to Ms Moitra, and one of the MPs leaked details of the meeting to the media while it was underway. “What kind of meeting was this? They are asking all kinds of filthy questions,” a visibly upset Ms Moitra told reporters.

On Wednesday, anti-corruption body Lokpal, which took up the case in a meeting and approved it, ordered a CBI probe into the corruption allegations against Ms Moitra, Nishikant Dubey said in a post on X. “On basis of my complaint, Lokpal has ordered a CBI probe into the Mahua Moitra’s corruption that compromises national security,” read the BJP MP’s post.

Th Ethics Panel will meet tomorrow to adopt the report on Mahua Moitra.

More than 2,000 farm fires were reported from Punjab on Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court issued directions to ensure stopping of crop residue burning “forthwith”.

Sangrur district, the birthplace of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, recorded the maximum number of stubble burning incidents in the state on Wednesday.

Many parts in Haryana saw air quality indices in the ‘severe’ and ‘very poor’ categories.

The total number of farm fires jumped to 22,981 in Punjab with 2,003 fresh such cases being reported on Wednesday, according to Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data.

Out of the 2,003 stubble burning incidents, Sangrur continued to top with 466 such cases, followed by 221 in Bathinda, 216 in Barnala, 150 in Faridkot, 131 in Mansa, 106 in Patiala, 103 in Ferozepur and 96 in Ludhiana, according to the data.

Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav on Wednesday asked the police officers to work in tandem with the civil administration to prevent stubble burning in the state.

The DGP also appointed Special DGP (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla as the police nodal officer to monitor action against stubble burning, according to an order.

“The police nodal officer shall issue suitable directions, hold meetings, conduct tours and collect and collate relevant information and put up to the DGP Punjab and the Chief Secretary so that monitoring of the actions being undertaken by the police to ensure compliance of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court is done in an effective manner,” the order read.

Out of total 22,981 farm fires recorded from September 15 till November 8, Sangrur is leading with highest number of stubble burning cases of 4,070, followed by 2,176 in Ferozepur, 1,888 in Tarn Taran, 1,719 in Mansa, 1,524 in Patiala, 1,454 in Amritsar, 1,436 in Bathinda, 1,129 in Barnala, 1,089 in Ludhiana and 1,014 in Faridkot.

Meanwhile, Haryana’s Fatehabad recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 451, followed by Faridabad at 425, Jind at 406, Bhiwani at 400, Gurugram 385, Kaithal 380, Rohtak 362, Hisar 332, Panipat 323 and Sisra 319.

In Punjab, Bathinda reported AQI at 348, followed by Mandi Gobindgarh at 338, Ludhiana 292, Patiala 267, Jalandhar 266, Khanna 253 and Amritsar 240.

The Union Territory of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, saw an AQI of 201.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.

As the window for wheat, a key rabi crop, is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop.