At Least 12 Drown During Ganesh Immersion in Maharashtra

Mumbai: As many as 12 persons drowned during immersion of Ganesh idols in Maharashtra on Thursday as the ten-day Ganesh festival came to an end.

Two persons drowned in Nashik district, while three others were rescued, police said. Another person was missing. The deceased were identified as Prashant Patil (38), who drowned near Ramkund, a bathing ghat on the bank of the Godavari river, in Nashik city, and Yuvraj Rathod (28), who met with watery grave in a pond at Pahine village near the temple town of Trimbakeshwar.

One college-going youth was missing, the police said. Lifeguards and fire brigade jawans rescued three persons near Someshwar Waterfall in Nashik. One Soma Shivanakar drowned in a pond at Dolsar village of Bhandara district, a police official said.

At Watole Shukleshwar village in Amravati district, at least four devotees were washed away in the Purna river. Chaitnya Shinde (20), a resident of Malkapur, was washed away in the Koyana river at Karad in Satara district.

In Akola, Vicky More (27) was feared drowned during immersion in a water-filled quarry. The area had been fenced off but devotees cut the fence and immersed idols in the quarry, a police official said.

Two persons drowned during immersion in Sindhudurg district, three in Ratnagiri, two in Satara district, one each in Dhule, Buldhana and Bhandara and four persons were missing in Amravati district.

A boy was feared drowned in Shahapur in Thane district.