By Thamanna Sadique
Tragic incident took place on Sunday, 15th February, where two college students who went for an outing with six of their friends, drowned in the backwaters of Mulshi Dam.On Monday afternoon of 16th February, the two bodies were discovered by a team of officers from Mulshi Disaster Management and the Pune Rural Police.
Anish Raut of age 18 and Vishal Rathod of age 17 were identified as the deceased by the local police. Both of these students were from Pimpri Chinchwad, who drowned in the backwaters of the dam at Dhokalwadi village as said by Pramod Balkawade, an official of Mulshi Disaster Management to journalists of Times of India.
According to Pramod Balkawade, Anish Raut and Vishal Rathod along with six other friends from Thergaon in Pimpri Chinchwad went for an outing to the Mulshi dam last Sunday. He said, out of the eight friends, four of them entered the water in the Dhokalwadi Village dam. Rathod and Raut failed to grasp the depth of the dam and drowned into it. Remaining friends made the villagers know about the situation, who then went on to inform about the happenings to the local police.
Pramod Balkawade said, “a team from the Mulshi Disaster Management, until late night on Sunday searched through the dam, but couldn’t find the two students. The search then again continued on Monday morning and by 11:45 am, the bodies were found.” As per an officer of the Paud police, an accidental death case was registered and investigations are being carried Out.
As advised by one of the member from the rescue team, visitors must not venture into the dam,
during their visit, as it is extremely difficult to understand the depth of the dam which makes it risky to enter the waters. The two students lost their lives as they were not able to come back on the surface due to the depth of the dam.