Pune: An employee of a carpet manufacturing firm in Mulshi died after his car plunged into Manas lake at Bhugaon in Mulshi taluka, about 14km from the city, in the early hours of Monday.
The accident occurred when the victim, Ramdas Pawar (40) of Ambegaon, was returning home after dinner with his friends in a restaurant near the lake, the Paud police said.Inspector Manojkumar Yadav said a resident of a nearby locality saw the car in the lake waters when went there for a walk on Monday morning.
“He informed the police control room. We alerted the Mulshi Disaster Management Committee and reached the spot,” Yadav said.
Pramod Balkawde of the Mulshi Disaster Management Committee told TOI, “Our team members swam till the white hatchback car and found its boot door open though the car was locked. While trying to pull out the car from the water using our vehicle, the rope snapped. But we managed to bring it near the banks.”
He said the team members then saw a person in the car’s backseat. “We pulled out the car with the help of a crane. We had to break the car’s glass to bring the man’s body out.”
He said the victim’s identity was ascertained through a bag in the car. “The body was sent for the post-mortem to the rural hospital in Paud,” Balkawde said.
Inspector Yadav said, “After checking the car, we found that Pawar had made several attempts to open the doors. He even tried to break the windscreen and window glasses using the car’s key, but did not succeed. Pawar’s friends said he had left the restaurant around 12.30am on Monday. No one, not even his friends, were aware of the accident.”
The police have registered a case of accidental death. Pawar is survived by his wife and two children.
Last year, five people, including a gynaecologist, an IT professional and a 12-year-old girl, died after vehicles plunged into water bodies near the city in separate accidents.
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