Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In a tragic accident, four persons have died and seven others injured after a Tavera car (bearing number MH 41 V 4816) in which they were travelling fell into a 300-feet deep valley in Kannad Autram Ghat, at 12 pm on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
The deceased have been identified as Prakash Gulabrao Shirke (65), Sheelabai Prakash Shirke (60), Vaishali Dharmendra Suryawanshi (35) and Purva Ganesh Deshmukh (08). All the devotees in the car were returning home to Janewadi in Malegaon tehsil after paying tributes at a temple in Akkalkot.
It so happened that the devotees were on pilgrimage to Akkalkot in their private vehicle and were proceeding to Chalisgaon from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar via Kannad Ghat. Unfortunately, the accident took place one-km ahead when the ghat was about to end. There was fog, strong winds and heavy rainfall in the ghat on Sunday. As a result, the driver of the car was unable to gauge the road and the vehicle straightaway hit the parapet wall of the ghat and slid into the deep valley. The accident took place at Jai Malhar Point in the ghat.
The injured victim Anuj Dharmendra Suryanwashi (20) after the accident came up till the ghat and screamed for help to the vehicles passing by. Hence the passengers of other vehicles contacted the rural and city police of Chalisgaon and informed them about the accident.
Acting upon the information, the squads of highway police, rural and city police of Chalisgaon along with villagers reached the accident spot at 1 am (on Monday) and started to search for the victims in the flashlight of the mobile phones. The operation to rescue the victims started at 2.15 am and continued till 7 am (on Monday). The victims were pulled till the ghat route with the help of rope under flashlights of mobile phones. In the meantime, there was landsliding at Menbatti Point. As a result, the boulders and soil spread on the road and disrupted the vehicular traffic in the ghat. Hence the police had to crack hardnuts in shifting the victims to the hospital. This was done only after managing to shift the boulders and soil to the side of the road. The challenging task was done in rainfall, fog and darkness. There has been rainfall in the ghat area since Monday morning.
The task was accomplished by three to four squads comprising Chalisgaon Rural Police Inspector Sandeep Patil, API Rupali Patil, Virendra Shisode, Ganesh Kale, Jitendra Mali, Lalit Mahajan, API Dharam Singh Sundarwade, Sandeep Patil, Nana Badgujar, Yuvraj Naik, Sandeep Mane, Manoj Patil, Baba Rajput, Nitin Walhe, Virendra Rajput, Rajendra Salunkhe, Shankar Janjale, Nandu Pardeshi, Rahul Sonwane and others along with Highway police and villagers. The victims were rushed to the Chalisgaon hospital in an ambulance.
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The names of injured are Anuj Dharmendra Suryawanshi (20), Jayesh Dharmendra Suryawanshi (17), Siddhesh Purushottam Pawar (12), Krishna Wasudev Shirke (04), Rupali Ganesh Deshmukh (30), Pushpa Purushottan Pawar (35) and driver Abhay Popatrao Jain (50).