Three members of three generations returning from a family wedding were crushed to death on VIP Road on Monday around 3am when a driver who allegedly stole a private bus and was trying to escape a pursuing police squad rammed into their car at a red light.

The dead were identified as Shivshankar Rathi, 54, his mother Kamala Rathi, 73, and his son Shrivatsa Rathi, 23.

Shivshankar was the father of the bride, Ayushi, a doctor; the elderly woman was her grandmother; and Shrivatsa her younger brother. Ayushi’s mother Sarala was in another car, part of a convoy that had passed the spot before the signal turned red.

The bus had allegedly been stolen an hour and a half before the crash.

After hitting the car, the bus allegedly did not stop but barrelled forward and crashed into a stone-chip-laden truck a few kilometres away. The driver of the bus is now in judicial custody.

The passengers of the car were returning from a banquet hall near City Centre-II in New Town where Ayushi got married to another doctor, a relative said.

The three were returning to Salt Lake where they had rented rooms for the family and relatives because of the proximity to the wedding venue, compared to the distance from their Maniktala home.

“The car in which my uncle, grandmother and cousin were returning was the last in the row. All the other relatives had crossed the stretch in other cars while this one was stuck in a red signal,” said Kaushal Dujari, who is related to Shivshankar’s wife Sarala.