Apathetic crowd sealed his fate

While three of his friends lay motionless, Sachin with his bones cracked and body soaked in blood lay helpless in 20-feet deep gorge for four hours till the police shifted him to the Shirur hospital. Two hours later he breathed his last.

A resident of Arprit Apartments at Akurdi, Sachin along with his friends, Santosh Shetty (20), Prasanna Shetty (20) and Girishkumar Shroff (25) – all hailing from the business community in Chinchwad-Akurdi area – was returning from Shirdi when their Maruti 800 rammed into a tree at Gavahenwadi on the Pune-Ahmednagar Highway around 3 am on Tuesday.

The Shirur police which reached the spot around 7 am found Sachin breathing hard. They immediately shifted him to the Shirur government hospital where he lost the battle for life after two hours, his friends and relatives said.

“Sachin died in the hospital around 9 am while three others had breathed their last on the spot,” said Mahfuz Khan, one of Sachin’s close friend who had rushed to the accident place after receiving a call from the Shirur police round 7.30 am. Another friend added that other than Sachin two others seems to have struggled with life in the gorge. One of them lay dead with his hand on head from where the blood was oozing out while there were footmarks in blood to indicate that one of them had tried to pull himself up from the pit.”

However, what has anguished the victims’ families and friends is the inhuman attitude of the local residents and passers-by. “For four hours Sachin fought with death but nobody lend a helping hand. Is this what humanity is all about?,” asked a sobbing relative Mangilal Kotharia. He added: “The boy in life always rushed forth to rescue people within the community and outside. He was very sociable and was fondly called Aamir Khan, since he resembled the Bollywood star.”