Accident kills scribe on way to engagement

Accident kills scribe on way to engagement
By Alka Dhupkar

Priyanka Dahale was an award winning journalist and a poet.

Priyanka Dahale, 27, a correspondent with the daily Divya Marathi, was heading home for her engagement ceremony - scheduled for Thursday - when she and two others were killed in a car accident at Nashik’s Pathardi Phata on Monday.

The cool cab Dahale and the two others were travelling in was crushed by a truck filled with sand. The cab was behind the sand-laden truck when the truck’s rear compartment opened and the sand spilled on the cab. It blocked the driver’s view and the cab came under the wheels of the truck.

Dahale along with co-passenger Mohsin Khan, 18, an Andheri resident, and cab driver Bhupendra Saini, 60, died on the spot. Their bodies were taken to the Civil Hospital in Nashik for post-mortem.

Devidas Hingole, investigating officer from Ambad police station, told Mirror that a case has been registered under IPC sections 304 A, 279, 337, 338 and under the Motor Vehicles Act. The truck driver Sunil kumar Samyalal Kol, who fled from the spot, has been booked for rash driving, negligence and the death of three people.

Prashant Pawar, Dahale’s boss, said: “Dahale’s body was crushed. It was shocking to hear the news of her death. Had she survived, we would have seen a prolific poet in Marathi.”

Dahale was an award-winning journalist and poet. She was honoured with the Laadli Award for Gender Sensitivity by the UN Population Fund and Population First in 2010 for her reportage on the problems refugee women from Bangladesh face. Dahale was also honoured with the Vishakha Award for her debut collection of Marathi poems, Anavrutta Resha.

“Priyanka’s untimely death is huge loss to the literary and journalistic fraternity of the state,” said Kishor Kadam, poet and actor.