Eleven persons,including an eight-month-old boy,were killed and two injured after their Qualis collided head-on with a sand dumper on Mumbai-Goa highway near Dabhil Village in Ratnagiri Sunday night. The victims were returning to the city after finalising a marriage,police said. Around 11.30 pm,the dumper,which was on its way to Chiplun,hit the Qualis,which turned turtle. Eyewitnesses rushed the victims to a nearby hospital where they were declared dead before admission. The dumper driver has been booked,said police. The deceased included 10 of a family Anita Chavan (60),Anant Chavan (56),his son Rakesh (28),daughter-in-law Neeta (23) and their 8-month-old son Haresh,daughter Sujata Mane (23),her husband Kashinath Mane (40) and their daughter and son. The driver of the vehicle,Prashant Majhare (28) also died. They were residents of Guriya Pada near Orlem Church. One of Chavans neighbours said the family was going to fix their younger sons marriage. The family was very cultured. We never heard fights at their house. The day before they left,Neeta and Anita spoke to neighbours about the girl they were going to see, said Om Shankar, a neighbour. The family had shifted to Guriya Pada a year ago. They were living in an apartment on rent. Majhare also lived in the neighbourhood. Rakesh worked at Ford and was also an upshakha pramukh of the ward. He was an active social worker. Recently,we had organised a free book distribution camp in an ashram at Madh, said Kiran Thombre,shakha adhikari of Shiv Sena. Rakesh had told me on Sunday morning that he would meet me as soon as he returned to discuss the programmes we had been involved in. Rakesh had a bright future as a politician, said Thombre.
