Five persons were killed on Monday after a speeding tempo rammed into them on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway while they were pushing their vehicle towards Adai village in Panvel. While three persons died on the spot, two others were taken to a local hospital where they succumbed. The tempo driver allegedly fled the spot and has been booked by Khandeshwar police. Police said the accident took place when eight friends and neighbours were travelling to Junnar taluka in Pune district in a Maruti Omni van to attend a wedding. “They were part of the wedding procession and had left their houses in Indira Nagar, Mankhurd, around 12.30 am. The groom had gone ahead of them,” said an officer. The car broke down ahead of Panvel and the passengers decided to take it to a nearby village by hitching a ride. “While Sanjay Rajbhar (28) and Mundrika Jaiswal (36) walked ahead, six others were pushing the van at the time of the accident,” the officer said. Around 5.30 am, a tempo, loaded with watermelons, which was headed towards Mumbai, rammed into the van. “The tempo was speeding and the driver did not notice the men pushing the van. While the tempo hit the men, the driver ran out of the vehicle and fled the spot,” the officer said. The deceased have been identified as Santosh Prajapati (40), Rashid Nafiz Khan (24), Jumman Shaikh (45), Dinesh Jaiswal (32), and Ayodhya Yadav (26) — residents of West Bengal and UP. “While Prajapati, Khan and Shaikh were declared brought dead, Jaiswal and Yadav passed away at the hospital. Ramchandra Yadav (30) is critical,” the officer added. The Khandeshwar police has booked the tempo driver. “We will trace the owner of the tempo and find out who the driver was. He has been booked for rash and negligent driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” a senior officer said. The victims, all owners of small businesses, were neighbours from Mandala in Indira Nagar of Mankhurd. “They had been planning for the wedding for sometime. We haven’t informed the wedding party in Junnar yet,” one of Jaiswal’s neighbour said. “While some of them lived with their families, the others shared a room amongst themselves. Their families have taken the bodies to their native villages for the funerals,” said one of Prajapati’s neighbors.
