By Naysa Shrivastava
In an accident early Sunday morning, three young men lost their lives after their speeding car
rammed into a metro pillar near the Bund Garden police station in Pune around 5 am.
The deceased were identified as Yash Prasad Bhandari (23), a software engineer; his cousin
Rutvik Vinayak Bhandari (23), an MBA graduate; and their friend Khushwant Kishor Tekwani
(19), a BTech student at MIT College in Pune. Police said the impact of the crash was severe,
leaving no chance of survival.
Yash and Rutvik, both 23, were not just cousins but lifelong best friends. “The two were born six
months apart. They grew up together and were inseparable. Losing a child is the greatest pain for
a man,” said Yash’s father, Prasad Bhandari, a real estate dealer.
Rutvik’s father, Vinayak Bhandari, is Prasad’s brother. “The Bhandari family is from Karnataka
but has been in Pune for the last few years,” said Rutvik’s maternal uncle.
Rutvik, who lived in Pimpri Gaon, had completed his MBA in finance and was working for a
private firm. He had briefly been in the UK for a project and had recently returned.
Yash, employed with a firm in Balewadi, was a software engineer and a bright student. “He was
the brightest in our class. We had planned to collect our degree certificates together soon,” said
Pranav Landge, Yash’s former classmate.
Their friend Khushwant Tekwani, from Beed district, was a BTech student and the son of lawyer
Kishor Tekwani, who practices in Beed court. His family reached Pune late Sunday afternoon.
The sudden loss has left both families and friends in deep grief.