Pune: Aunt on way to meet boy rescued after kidnap dies in road accident

Hours after four-year-old Swarnav Chavan was reunited with his family after being kidnapped from the Balewadi area in Pune last week, his aunt, who was travelling from Nanded to meet him, died in a road accident in Ahmednagar district in the early hours of Thursday.

The deceased has been identified as Sunita Rathod (36), the elder sister of Swarnav’s father Dr Satish Chavan. Her husband Santosh, who was driving the car, and two children – Samar (14) and Aman (6) – were injured.

The police said that the car met with an accident around 3 am, on a bridge around 5 km away from Ahmednagar city.

Inspector Shishir Deshmukh of Ahmednagar police said that the injured were shifted to Pune for further treatment.

Swarnav was allegedly kidnapped from the Saykar garden in the Balewadi area around 9.45 am on January 11 by suspects who fled on a two-wheeler. A man, who is suspected to be the kidnapper, left the boy and a bag at a building in Punawale on Wednesday afternoon. The bag carried the contact number of the boy’s father. The locals contacted him and handed over the boy to the family.