Outing turns tragic, 2 girls drown in Mula river

Pune: An outing in Mulshi after a month-long hectic schedule turned tragic on Monday evening for four employees and the owner of a ‘sari' shop in Kothrud, as two among them drowned in the Mula river at Sambhave village, about 40km from here.
The officials from the Pune fire brigade on Tuesday fished out the bodies of Ashwini Kamble (18) and Vinal Ganesh Survase (16), residents of Sangam Chowk and Gadhave Colony, respectively, in Kothrud.Their two colleagues Rekha Bhandari and Sneha Survase had come out of the water when the mishap occurred. The sari shop owner was also on the banks of the river.
Bhandari, a resident of Shastrinagar in Kothurd, told TOI that Shena, Ashwini and she were working as sales girls in a sari shop at Azadnagar in Kothrud, owned by Umesh Patharkar. "We and the owner had worked hard over the past one month and did not take leave," she said.
Bhandari said Patharkar and his wife had visited the Mulshi dam a few months ago. "He had shown us the photographs taken on his cellphone. All of us were pursuing Patharkar to take us to that spot since then," she said.
Bhandari said the plan for a short trip to Mulshi dam was made on Monday because it was their first holiday after about a month. "Sneha's younger sister Vinal wanted to join us. We took her along after taking permission of the shop owner," Bhandari said.
She said they left for Mulshi in Patharkar's car in the afternoon. "We visited the dam and had fun," she said.
Bhandari said around 4.30pm she and the three other employees of the sari shop had entered the river at Sambhave village. "We were in the water for quite sometime. I came out of the river after I started feeling cold. Sneha, too, came out with me. But Ashwini and Vinal remained in the water," she said.
"When they started returning towards the banks after sometime, Vinal lost her balance and fell in the water. Ashwini, too, fell because Vinal was holding her hand," Bhandari said.
Bhandari said Patharkar jumped into the river seeing them drowning in the water., but could not help them.
On Tuesday, a team of Pune fire brigade rushed to the spot and found both the bodies.