E-Paper
Body of disabled teenager lost in Sangli floods, found a week later
On the evening of August 14, a week after he went missing, the boy’s body was found stuck in slush in the neighbouring colony of Vinayaknagar
Shantanu Shantiprasad Kharatmal, 17, probably did not understand what was happening when his mother lost grip of his hand as he was swept by the current in the Sangli floods, in the early hours of August 7.
Shantanu, a resident of Gajraj colony in Shamraonagar, Sangli, was physically and mentally disabled. A search team appointed by the Sangli district collector was unable to find the teenager on the fateful day.
On the evening of August 14, a week after he went missing, the boy’s body was found stuck in slush in the neighbouring colony of Vinayaknagar.
Having been underwater for a week, the body was unrecognisable. His mother, Anuradha Shantiprasad Kharatmal, (45), said, “I recognised him from the clothes he was wearing. Two boys came home on August 14 saying the police wanted us to come to Civil Hospital to identify a body. That is how we found him.”
Shantanu was Anuradha and her husband Shantiprasad Vitthalrao Khatarmal’s (51) only child.
Accompanied by Anuradha’s father, the family has started moving in and cleaning the remnants of their belongings on Thursday, Independence Day. Not a lot of their furniture survived the flood.
Shantiprasad suffered a paralysis attack two months ago. “The paralysis rendered him incapable of carrying our son as his back had become weak. That is the reason I was carrying Shantanu out of the house. The incident occurred around 3-4am on August 7, which was a Wednesday. We stayed in till Tuesday, but waters started rising above our waists fast,” recalls Anuradha.
“I was carrying him on my shoulders. Outside the house (in the alley), my leg slipped as the current was high and he was washed away from my arms. It was dark, there was no electricity and I could not see anything around me,” she added.
The couple left the house and managed to reach Shantiprasad’s uncle’s house in Vishrambaug, Sangli. Shantiprasad’s uncle went to Abhijeet Chowdhury, collector of Sangli, and narrated the incident.
“We sent a team to the spot, but were unable to recover anybody from there. The veracity of the information provided by the man could not be established,” said the collector.
Shantanu’s parents had approached the Sangli police and registered a missing person’s complaint. The complaint helped the police identify the teenager’s body as soon as it was found. The body was handed over to the parents on August 14.
