Maharashtra: MLA’s son among 7 medical students killed in Wardha accident

Seven medical students were killed in Maharashtra’s Wardha district when the car they were travelling in fell off a bridge near Selsura village early on Tuesday, police said, adding that the deceased included the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator.

Superintendent of police, Wardha, Prashant Holkar, said the students were returning after a late-night party to their hostel rooms of the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College at Sawangi (Meghe) in Wardha, when the driver of the car lost control and rammed into a bridge. The car, an SUV, fell into the Bhadari river and all seven died on the spot, the SP added.

According to the police, the incident took place around 1.30am near Selsura village in Wardha, 120km from Nagpur

One of the deceased students, Avishkar Rahangdale (22), was the son of BJP MLA from Tirora, Vijay Rahangdale. He was a first-year MBBS student of the college in Wardha. Police said the SUV was being driven by one of the students, and that they were  returning from neighbouring Yavatmal district after celebrating the birthday of a student.

The other six deceased have been identified as Niteesh Kumar Singh from Belapur in Odisha, Vivek Nandan and Pawan Shakti (both from Gaya in Bihar), Niraj Chauhan, from Daudpur in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh),  and Pratyush Singh and Shubham Jaiswal from Chandauli (Uttar Pradesh). Police said all the dead were in their 20s.

Wardha sub-divisional police officer Piyus Jagtap said priliminary probe suggested that the vehicle was “running at a speed of more than 120 mph”. “That must have been the reason behind the accident,” he said.

“We also feel that the vehicle driver was under the influence of liquor. However, we are awaiting the post mortem report,” he added. All the bodies were sent to the Wardha civil hospital for postmortem.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended condolences and announced an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased. 

“PM Narendar Modi announced that ₹2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives in the accident near Selsura. Those who are injured would be given ₹50,000,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Twitter.