Five dead, 2192 relocated as rains pound Pune district

Electrocution

Three people died of electrocution in water in the river bed at Pulachi Wadi under Z Bridge in Deccan Gymkhana area of Pune city in the early hours of Thursday. Police said the deceased Abhishek Ajay Ghanekar (25), Akash Vinayak Mane (21) and Shiv Jidbahadur Parihar (18) were all residents of Pulachi Wadi.

Senior police inspector Swapnali Shinde of Deccan police station said Ghanekar operated a street food cart in Pulachi Wadi area and Mane was his friend. Parihar, a native of Nepal, worked at another food stall in the area, police said.

Around 4 am, the water level in the river bed under Z-bridge in Pulachi Wadi rose amid the constant rainfall at night. When the three men stepped into the water to shift Ghanekar’s cart to a safe spot, they received a severe electric shock.

Teams of police and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) reached the spot to investigate. Police said the three victims were taken to Sahyadri Hospital where doctors pronounced them dead at around 5 am. The bodies were then taken to Sassoon Hospital for postmortem, the police said.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by MSEDCL stated that its chief engineer Rajendra Pawar, superintendent engineer Sinhajirao Gaikwad and executive engineer Vijay Funde visited the place where the incident took place. The state power body stated that its electric cable in the river bed area in Deccan area is underground. When water discharge in the river rose due to heavy rains, MSEDCL had disconnected power supply from this cable as a precaution around 4 am. A prima-facie inquiry by MSEDCL revealed that the cart that was being shifted by the three men had an illegal electrical connection taken from another point using a wire. MSEDCL suspects the three men died after coming in contact with electric current flowing from this wire.

MSEDCL also said that the spot where the incident took place was still under water which made it impossible to inspect the area properly. MSEDCL will carry out a proper investigation in this case after the water level reduces, the press release stated.

Landslide

Meanwhile, a hotelier died in an incident of landslide at Adarwadi village in Mulshi on the Pune–Tamhini–Kolad road, around 2.30 am. Police said the deceased Shivaji Motiram Bahirat (30) was a resident of Adharwadi. A case of accidental death has been registered regarding the incident.

Police said Shivaji Bahirat and his younger brother Sharad are owners of Picnic Point Hotel in Adharwadi. Sharad left the hotel around 8 pm on Wednesday, while Shivaji and a worker, Sonu Jambhulpani stayed at the hotel overnight.

After heavy rainfall in the Tamhini area, a part of the mountain land slid and fell onto the hotel. Local villagers informed Sharad around 2.30 am about the landslide, and they all rushed to the spot. The worker Jambhulpani managed to come out of the debris and asked the people to rescue Shivaji Bahirat. Villagers cleared the rubble to get Shivaji out and immediately took the two to the Paud rural hospital. However, Shivaji was pronounced dead by doctors, police said. Later, government and police officials visited the spot and called in a crane service to clear the debris.

Landslides were also reported at Tamhini Ghat, in various places in Khed taluka, Mulshi and Maval area. Three people were trapped when rocks fell on a bungalow in Lavasa. Authorities are continuing their work to rescue them. Eight state highways were closed due to landslides.

Drowning

An unidentified person died by drowning near the crematorium of Charoli, taking the toll to five.

Deputy Chief Minister and guardian minister Ajit Pawar took stock of the relief and rescue operations from Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar and other officers at the CCTV Command Control Room in police headquarters.

Evacuation

Since Thursday morning, the irrigation department had taken to discharge water from the Khadakwasla dam. Till about 6 pm the discharge level had touched 40,000 cusec as rains continued in the catchment and pre catchment areas of the dams. Water logging was reported in multiple areas of the city with residents of Sinhgad Road and Warje, being stranded in their buildings as river water entered the basement areas of their buildings. Low lying areas near the river beds had to be evacuated. This included 1,615 people from Pune city and the rest were from Haveli taluka.

Some families in Dhayari had refused to evacuate despite a request by the district authorities. Water had entered the parking of houses in Laxmi nagar area of Pimple Gurav as well as some other areas in Old Sanghvi. Around 120-150 houses in Pavananagar and Ganagnagar areas of Pimpri Chinchwad were water logged as well.