Five family members die in bridge inferno

The family trip to the Narayanpur temple, which ended tragically in a fatal accident on the Navale Bridge, has shocked everyone.

- Ankit Shukla

The five people in the car who died in the crash on the Navale Bridge were returning from a visit to a temple in Narayanpur, police said. The five victims belonged to three different families.

A couple and their daughter from Pune’s Dhayari had embarked on the trip with a driver, who was a family friend. A three-year-old girl present in the car was another family friend’s daughter, a resident of Chikhali, police said. They were returning from the temple in Narayanpur when, a few kilometres away from their house, the fatal accident occurred on the Navale Bridge.

The deceased have been identified as car driver Dhananjay Koli (30), a resident of Chikhali, Swati Santosh Navalkar (37) of Dhayari Phata, her mother Shanta Dattatraya Dabhade (54), father Dattatraya Chandrakant Dabhade (58), Rohit Dnyaneshwar Kadam (25), a resident of Loni, Taluka Khandala, district Satara, and three-year-old Mokshita Hemkumar Reddy, a resident of Chikhali. Moreover, the truck driver Rustam Rudar Khan (35) and cleaner Mushtaq Hanif Khan (31) also died on the spot after the collision of the vehicles and fire.

Sambhaji Kadam, Deputy Commissioner of Police, said, “The driver, cleaner and owner of the speedy truck (Tahir Nasir Khan) have been booked under culpable homicide, not amounting to murder charges. A case has been registered in Kothrud Police Station under sections 105, 281, 125 (a)(b), 324 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections 184, 119/177 of the Motor Vehicle Act, on Friday.”