Speed kills five students on Pune Mumbai Expressway

26/07/2016

PUNE: Five college students were killed and more was critically injured after their car turned turtle near Kamshet on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway as the driver among them lost control due to high speed, Pune rural police said.

The accident took place about 3 am, when six friends were on their way to Pune from Mumbai in a Maruti Ciaz car. Inspector IS Patil of Kamshet police station said, “Primary observations suggest that the car was in very high speed and that the driver may have lost control. The car turned turtle and landed in the roadside pit. Everyone in the car sustained severe injuries leading to the death of five.”

Police said three of them died on the spot, while two more breathed last as they were being taken to the hospital. A sixth person was being treated at the Lokmanya Hospital in Nigdi and his condition is said to be critical.

The five deceased have been identified as Aditya Bhandarkar, Yash Shirali, Abhishek Roy, Akshay Bhilare and Jacky Samuel, all currently staying in Pune. Police said all the deceased are aged between 23 and 26. They are all college students, the police added.

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Pune's Gold shirt owner murdered

15/07/2016

PUNE: A 48-year-old businessman from Pune, who shot into the limelight after buying a gold shirt worth over Rs one crore some years back, was allegedly bludgeoned to death in front of his son, police said today.

Datta Phuge, the businessman from the industrial township of Pimpri-Chinchwad in the district, had become the talk of the town after he presented himself a gold shirt weighing about 3.5 kg and worth Rs 1.27 crore in 2012.

At least 12 persons attacked Phuge at an open ground in Dighi area here at around 11.30 PM last night with stones and a sharp weapon, killing him on the spot. "As per preliminary information, Phuge and his son were invited by one of the suspects, who know each other, to celebrate a birthday. However, we are investigating how Phuge reached the open ground where he was murdered," Dighi police station inspector Navnath Ghogare said. Phuges 22-year-old son, who too had reached the spot following a similar birthday invitation and witnessed his fathers murder, was spared by the attackers, police said.

Datta Phuge, the husband of a former corporator from Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, was into money lending and chit fund business. Police suspect that some dispute over a money transaction could be the reason behind the gory murder. "We have detained four persons and suspect that dispute over a money transaction between them could be the motive behind his murder," said Ghogare. In 2012, Phuge presented himself the glittering shirt made out of gold and as per the local jeweller who had crafted the piece, as many as 15 goldsmiths from Bengal had worked for 16 hours a day over a period of two weeks to make the shirt ordered by him.

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