Mumbai: Five wrestlers were among six persons killed in a road accident, which left seven injured in Maharashtra’s Sangli district early on Saturday. The accident took place on the Kadegaon-Sangli road, when the wrestlers were on their way back from a wrestling competition in Pune’s Aundh village. The SUV in which the wrestlers were travelling, rammed into a tractor carrying sugarcane. The tractor driver fled the spot after the accident and the Sangli police have registered a case against him. The police have formed teams to nab the driver.
The deceased have been identified as Vijay Patil (Ramapur), Shubham Gharge (Soholi, Sangli), Saurabh Mane (Malkhed, Karad), Akash Desai (Kale, Satara), Avinash Gaikwad (Shirala, Sangli) and the SUV driver Ranjeet Dhanawade. All the deceased wrestlers belonged to Kranti Kushti Sankul institution, which has been dominating the state-level tournaments in recent years, and were expected to make the grade for the national championships soon. The team of wrestlers was heading to Kundal from Aundh village and were accompanied by their coach Vijay Mohite, who got off minutes before the accident, said a police officer. The seven injured have been taken to a state-run hospital in Sangli.
A police officer from Chinchni-Vangi police station said, “We have registered a case against the unidentified absconding accused under section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC, along with section 279, 337, 338 pertaining to rash driving, causing hurt and causing grievous hurt respectively.”
“The driver has also been charged with relevant sections of the Motor Vehicle Act,” the police official added.
