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3 IIT Bombay students die after their SUV overturns on Mumbai–Pune Expressway
They were returning to campus from Khandala after watching sunrise
The students were returning from Khandala to IIT Bombay campus when the accident took place around 9 am near the Panvel exit on the Expressway, (Representational image)
Three students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, who had gone to watch the sunrise from the mountains, died after the SUV in which they were travelling overturned near Panvel on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Thursday.
The deceased, identified as Shreyansh Sharma, 22, Omkumar Borse, 23, and Lay Deshbhratar, 20, were returning from Khandala to their campus when the accident took place around 9 am near the Panvel exit on the Expressway, said Gajanan Ghadge, senior inspector of Panvel Taluka police station.
Sharma hailed from Jaipur in Rajasthan, Borse from Nashik, and Deshbhratar was from Nagpur. The three were accompanied by three other students in two other vehicles, he added.
Ghadge said, “The car in which the three deceased were travelling wanted to overtake a truck and go to the other lane. When they could not do so, they tried overtaking from the service road, and the vehicle got stuck between the truck and the service road and overturned several times, dealing fatal wounds to its occupants.”
The three were rushed to a hospital at Panvel, where they were declared dead. Police have registered a case against unidentified persons.
Police said that the group of students went for a movie Wednesday night and decided to head to Khandala around 5.30 am Thursday to watch the sunrise. Statements of the students who were accompanying the deceased were recorded, the officer added. Further investigation is on.
All three deceased were undergraduate students from different branches of engineering. Sharma was a fourth-year BTech student in mechanical engineering, while Borse and Deshbhratar were his juniors, both in their third year from the aerospace and physics branches, respectively. Their departments are expected to hold condolence meetings to mourn the loss.
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“It must have been an impromptu plan of the group of friends to head to Khandala. It is commonly used as a short getaway destination by most Mumbaikars. The vehicles used for the trip belonged to those who have families in Mumbai, because the institute does not allow students to have cars inside campus. This news has saddened everyone on campus,” a resident student said.
Students said Sharma was part of the Hostel Affairs Council in the academic year 2024-25. “He had also contested for the general secretary election. Sharma was an outgoing individual and had many friends,” said a student.
A senior student said, “It is quite common on campus to see students from different academic years, branches and hostels hanging out together. That is part of the institute’s culture.”
According to the institute administration, bodies of the deceased students were handed over to their family members.
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