Thirteen drown as bus plunges into river in Kolhapur

Mumbai: Thirteen persons drowned after the minibus in which they were travelling plunged into the Panc-hganga river in Kolhapur late on Friday night.

The driver had lost control of the vehicle, which was ferrying 16 passengers to Pune. Three women, Manda Kedari (54), Prajakta Kedari (18) and Manisha Varkhade (38), are seriously injured and have been admitted to Chhatrapati Pramila Raje Civil Hospital.

The Varkhade, Kedari and Nangare families, who hailed from Balewadi and Hinjewadi in Pune, were on their way back home from Ganpatipule in the Konkan, where they had gone to make offerings to Lord Ganesha after their prayers for a child were answered. The families were to take a pit stop at Kolhapur, and head to the Jotiba temple on Saturday. However, the minibus swerved and rammed into the safety barrier of the Shivaji bridge before plunging into the river.

A policeman said the bodies have been recovered, and the bus retrieved. The rescue operation ended early on Saturday, wherein the police and the Fire Brigade were deployed after an onlooker had reported the accident.

The deceased are San-tosh Varkhade (45); his daughters, Gauri (16) and Jnyaneshwari (14); Sachin Kedari (34); his wife Neelam (28) and their daughters, Sanskruti (8) and 9-month-old Sanid-hya; their relatives Sahil Kedari (14), Bhavna Kedari (35) and Shravani Kedari (11); Chhaya Nangare (41); her son Prateek Nangare (14); and the driver (28), who has yet to be identified.

Santosh Varkhade’s father, Gangaram, said, “The family was supposed to reach home on Satu-rday. But early that day I got a call from the police informing me about the accident. I am shattered.”