PUNE RAINS: Toll rises to 23, 8 missing
Four days after the heavy downpour which caused floods in Pune, authorities tried to drain the water flooded in the parking lot of Narhe society. Police said they found the body of a youth, Mukesh Gadilohar. Similarly, the fire brigade tried to find the car that was washed away carrying three people in Jambhulwadi. Fire officials found the body of one Suraj, alias Babu Sandeep Wadkar.
In yet another incident, the bodies of two Muslim women who had gone to the dargah in Khedshivapur and one unidentified youth at Khadakvasla were found by the authorities, taking the death toll to 23, so far. Eight people continue to be missing.
The body of Gadilohar, 28, was found at Narhe while that of Wadkar, 20, a resident of Santosh Nagar, Katraj, was found in a pond at Jambhulwadi. The fire brigade launched a search and rescue operation from Friday morning, and found the bodies of Aarti Suryavanshi, 35, a resident of Khedshivapur and Suvarna Ramchandra Jadhav, 65, were found.
Authorities are yet to establish the identity of the youth whose body was found at Khadakvasla. The death toll is rising and the authorities have varied information on missing people in different parts of the city, which they are trying to collate.
Three members of the Suryavanshi family were washed away on Thursday. They reside near the Karamali Durvesh dargah near Khedshivapur. Amongst these, officials have found the body of Gauri Suryavanshi, 14, while Aarti’s body was found on Friday and the husband, Shyam, is still missing.
Four people were trying to channel the flood waters in the parking lot of Saipuram society. Gadilohar, Macchindra Bawle, Mukesh and his brother got washed away because the wall in the parking lot collapsed in the middle of their efforts. Mukesh’s brother survived while Bawle’s body was found on Thursday and that of Mukesh on Friday.
While returning from their friend’s house, Wadkar and his two other friends, Nikhil Dinesh Chavan, 21, and Sainath alias Ganesh Tukaram Shinde, 22, were on the bridge near the Jambhulwadi Talao when their vehicle was washed away. Wadkar’s body was found but those of his friends are yet to be traced.
In another incident, two friends in a car, Victor Augustine Sangle, 28, resident of Viman Nagar and Salim Shaikh, 45, resident of Camp, were also washed away in their vehicle and are yet to be found. Sangle was studying chartered accountancy while Shaikh was a manager in an MNC at IT Park.