Howrah, July 4: The date on a fitness certificate found in the crashed minibus suggests its validity had expired over three months ago.

The Telegraph chanced upon the fitness certificate that was seized along with the blue book (registration paper) from the driver’s cabin.

The date on the fitness certificate was March 31, 2009. If there is no other fitness certificate — a bus is supposed to carry the latest while it is on the road — the date suggests the vehicle has been operating without the requisite paper for 94 days.

The Motor Vehicles Department of Howrah had issued the certificate. The registration mentions one Jahar Ghosh of Sankrail in Howrah as the bus owner. Ghosh could not be contacted.

The insurance certificate was valid till February 6, 2016.

“It appears that there may have been some problem with the steering wheel of the bus. If the vehicle had gone for the fitness test, the suspected lapse could have been corrected and many lives saved,” a police officer said.

The minimum penalty for driving a vehicle without a fitness certificate is Rs 4,000.

The helper of the bus, Mohammed Firdaus (30), told police that he thought the steering wheel had jammed. “The bus was moving at great speed. I saw the driver, Vivekananda Parui, struggling with the steering wheel. I think that it jammed,” said Firdaus, who is in hospital.