Watch: In her last speech Darshana Pawar said ‘Every life has a story of its own’

Watch: In her last speech, #darshanapawar speaks about her success, parent’s ‘overconfidence’ #Pune pic.twitter.com/HCq3m0nhZA

— Express PUNE (@ExpressPune) June 21, 2023

Seen wearing a traditional Marathi pheta, Pawar recounted in Marathi how her success in the exam and qualifying for the post of Range Forest Officer changed her own and others’ outlook.

She profusely thanked her parents for supporting and motivating her. Her father is a driver at a sugar mill in Kopargaon. “…My parents never discouraged me. I have never felt that I can’t do something. In fact, they were so overconfident about me that I had to ask them to tone down their expectations considering the extent of competitiveness in the MPSC,” she said.

She also thanked the Spotlight Academy, the host of the event and where she had completed a mock interview programme, for supporting her at a time when she had felt that “it was time to go home”.

A student of Shri Sharada English Medium School in Kopargaon until Class 10, Pawar did her B Sc in mathematics from Rayat Shikshan Sanstha’s SSGM College in Kopargaon and later shifted to Pune to do her M Sc from the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus.

“She prepared for civil services while doing her M Sc from Pune University. Later she returned to her hometown and studied at home, while making brief preparation-related visits. In March 2023, she cleared the Maharashtra Forest Services Examination and secured the post of Range Forest Officer,” a person close to the family told The Indian Express.

As per Hrishikesh Golave, co-founder of the Spotlight Academy, the institute organised a felicitation ceremony on June 10 for successful candidates in various competitive exams and that Pawar, an alumna of its mock interview programme, was one of the invitees.

“She had come to us for interview training a few months ago. In her Forest Services interview, she secured 30 out of 50 marks and succeeded in securing a rank in the exams. On June 10, she was felicitated by us and she thanked the academy for the efforts. We weren’t aware about her disappearance until June 14, when her father visited us enquiring of her whereabouts,” said Golave.

Pawar’s body was found at the foothills of the Rajgad Fort in Pune district’s Velha taluka on June 18. On June 12, she and a male friend—identified by police as Rahul Handore—went to the fort for trekking. Handore went missing from the spot. The Velhe police have registered a murder case against unidentified suspects on the basis of the postmortem report. They are trying to locate Handore, who is an important missing link in the case.