Deepak Sawant spoke to his daughter Jui when she reached Pune safely for an event, but little did he know it would be his last conversation with the 18-year-old who died along with 12 others when their bus plunged into a gorge on the old Mumbai-Pune highway in Maharashtra early on Saturday.
The private bus was going from Pune to Mumbai when it plunged into the gorge near Shingroba temple located in the 'ghat' (mountain pass) section on the highway in Raigad district around 4.50 am, killing 13 persons, including five children, and injuring 29.
"While leaving for Pune, Jui told me she will telephone me when she reached the city, which she did. That was my last conversation with my daughter," said a distraught Sawant, who is employed as a security guard.
Jui had just appeared for her Class 11 examination, he said.
"Around 7 am, we got a phone call from the police informing us about the accident. We immediately reached the site and found several people dead and injured," he said.
The victims were part of a traditional dhol-tasha (drums and percussion) troupe, based out of Goregaon in north-west Mumbai, who had travelled to Pune's Pimpri-Chinchwad area to take part in an event.
They were returning to Mumbai in the private bus when the driver reportedly lost control and it fell into a gorge near Shingroba temple under Khopoli police station limits.
Among the dead were brothers Satish and Swapnil Dhumal, who had left Mumbai on Friday to attend the event and boarded the bus in Pune in the early hours of the day.
"We were college students and associated with the troupe. I was asleep when we were informed about the accident. We immediately rushed to Khopoli and identified Swapnil's body," said Ganesh Bhole, a friend and neighbour of the brothers.
Satish and Swapnil's father Shridhar, who works with a private firm, and kin are in a state of shock and not in a position to speak.
According to the police, there were 42 members of 'Baji Prabhu Vaadak Group' on board the ill-fated bus.
One of the rescuers at the scene, Khopoli-resident Dr Riyaz Pathan, said he received a phone call from fellow medical practitioner Dr Shekhar Jamale about the accident.
"After reaching the spot, we managed to bring out 10 to 15 passengers, one of them dead," Dr Pathan said.
He claimed there were no safety railings at the spot, adding that their presence may have averted the accident.
