Photo session in Pavana backwaters ends with two Pune techies drowning

Lonavla rural police station rushed to the spot on being informed of the incident at approximately 12 noon, but could only retrieve Jadhav’s body three hours later, with the help of a team from the Indian Naval Ship (INS) Shivaji, located in Lonavla.

An overnight picnic to the backwaters of the Pavana dam turned into a tragedy after two of a group of friends on the outing drowned on Sunday afternoon.

A file picture of the catchment area of the Pavana dam. The backwaters of the dam are a popular tourist destination. Police inspector RJ Ingawale of Lonavla rural police station urged tourists to enter the water with caution at tourist spots across the state. (HT PHOTO)

The deceased have been identified as Mohit Anil Jadhav, 25, resident of Jalgaon, Maharashtra and Vedprakash Chandlal Rana, 28, resident of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, according to the police.

While Jadhav was a management graduate of Sinhgad college in Pune, he worked as a business analyst at Excellon Software.

Rana was an engineering graduate from Patel College of Science and Technology in Indore and also worked at Excellon Software as a test engineer.

Lonavla rural police station rushed to the spot on being informed of the incident at approximately 12 noon, but could only retrieve Jadhav’s body three hours later, with the help of a team from the Indian Naval Ship (INS) Shivaji, located in Lonavla. A team of eight divers searched the lake for over an hour before the body was found. The search team were not able to retrieve Rana’s body immediately. His body was recovered by 4 pm, according to police sub-inspector (PSI) BB Gaikwad of Lonavla rural police station.

The group of friends set up a camp and spent Saturday night near the dam, which is a famous tourist spot.

Jadhav and Ajinkya Ashok Shinde, 28, another person from the group, entered the water to click pictures.

They could not judge the depth of the water and the two began to drown, according to eye witnesses.

That is when Rana and another friend, Shubham Kailash Bummi, rushed in to save them.

When they also started drowning, the others raised an alarm and residents of Thakursarai, a village nearby, came in to help.

While the villagers rescued Shinde and Bummi, Rana and Jadhav drowned, police said. Their bodies were taken to a local hospital for post-mortem.

Police inspector RJ Ingawale of Lonavla rural police station urged tourists to enter the water with caution at tourist spots across the state.