Pune: Bodies of two passengers were recovered from the backwaters of Nira-Deodhar Dam after the car they were travelling in with two others fell in the waterbody from Varandha Ghat on Saturday morning.
The deceased have been identified as Akshay Ramesh Dhade (27) of Aqua Mist in Ravet and Harshpreet Harpreetsingh Bamba (30), resident of Pashan and hailing from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. Dhade’s friend Swapnil Parshuram Shinde (27) of Hadapsar, who was also in the car, is missing.
The fourth passenger, Sanket Viresh Joshi (28) of Pashan and hailing from Gujarat, survived the accident and filed a first information report (FIR) at Bhor police station.
According to the police, Akshay and Harpreet were to marry each other soon. Dhade and Shinde were working at an IT firm in Baner since last five years.
The four persons had gathered at Joshi’s house on Friday night for a weekend trip to Mahad via Bhor. They started the road journey Saturday morning via the banned Varandha Ghat. Akshay was driving the car at the ghat section of Varawand village area and the speeding vehicle lost balance and fell from 50-metre deep valley into the dam waters. Joshi managed to open the door of the car and survived the accident. He sustained injuries on his hands and legs.
Joshi climbed the valley to the main road and alerted vehicle users and locals informed the police. A Bhor police team and other emergency services were pressed for rescue operation.
Baliram Sangale, sub-inspector, Bhor police station, said, “Both Pune and Raigad district administration had banned travel on Varandha Ghat route during monsoon season.”
Later, the team fished out bodies of Dhade and Harshpreet, and recovered the car. Search is underway for Shinde till the last reports came in. The Bhor police station has filed a case under Sections 279, 304, 337, 338, 427 of the IPC and Sections 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act.