4 dead in E-way crash near Lonavala

Driver identified as suspended Samta Nagar constable, recently out on bail after spending 3 months in jail over custodial death.

A city couple’s plans to celebrate the Ganapati festival in Pune ended in tragedy when their car rammed into a trailer on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway near Lonavala at around 1.40am on Saturday.

The car was being driven by 47-year-old Rajendra Vishnu Chavan, who was a constable with the Samta Nagar police and had been recently suspended over his role in a case of custodial death. He had been in jail for the last three months for the same reason and had gotten out on bail earlier in September.

The other three deceased were identified as Chavan’s wife Vanita, 42, and the couple’s friends Shankar Marot Vangule, 33, and his wife Pooja, 26.

Chavan and his wife – residents of Borivali (east) -- wanted to visit the famous Ganapati pandals in Pune, including the famous Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati. The Vangules were visiting them from Raigad and the quartet decided to drive down to Pune for two days.

According to the Lonavala (city) police, Chavan was driving the Santro (MH 04 BW 0229) at a high speed on the Pune-bound central lane of the expressway. He lost control and the vehicle veered off to the extreme left lane, before crashing into the slowmoving trailer (MH 06 AQ 7517). The accident occurred near Valvan Bridge in Kusgaon, about 55km from Pune.

The impact was so intense that the car got stuck under the trailer. The car had to be pulled out to extract the bodies. The quartet had been killed immediately.

After getting to know about the accident, Khandala highway police sub inspector Ajit Patil and his team rushed to the spot. They pulled out the bodies of the deceased from the mangled car. Lonavala police is investigating further to find the exact reason for the accident.

Senior inspector Chandrakant Jadhav of Lonavala city police said, “We have lodged a complaint of accidental death and the bodies have been handed over to their relatives. Only after the RTO panchnama and further investigation, will we be able to tell the exact reasons for the accident.”