The body of one of the three missing persons, Chintan Buch, was found one kilometre away from Nira bridge.
The car that was carrying the missing executives has been found at the bottom of the river Nira, near Pune. National Disaster Management Authority commandant confirmed that they were in the process of recovering the car from the bottom of the riverbed. The bodies of three of the missing executives, Pranav Lele, one of the partners of Paradigm Plus, an advertisement and marketing firm in Kothrud, and the other two staffers Sahil Qureshi and Shrutika Chandwani, were found in the car, he informed.
The body of one of the three employees of an advertisement and marketing firm in Pune who had embarked on a trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka on Friday night has been found in Nira river on Wednesday. The identified person is Chintan Buch (28). The body was spotted a kilometre from Nira bridge.
Autopsy of Chintan Buch, who hailed from Vadodara, confirmed death by drowning.
DNA on Monday had reported about the four persons going missing under mysterious circumstances after embarking on a journey by car. The family of the deceased, office staff and others have rushed to the spot after getting the information.
The police suspect that the car must have plunged into the river through the gap between the two bridges owing to no concrete wall or crash barrier at the face of the two bridges. However, no trace of any accident or scratches on the wall or on the road dividers has been found.
A team of divers conducted a search operation in the 50-feet deep waters till late on Wednesday evening for the remaining missing persons and the car.
Deputy commissioner of police (Zone I) Makarand Ranade said, "The body of Chintan was found one kilometre from the bridge near Sarola village. Villagers spotted the body floating upside down near the river bed around 11.30 am and alerted the Rajgad police station."
Kothrud police station inspector Shrikant Navale said that the identity of Chintan was confirmed from the credit cards and identity card found in the wallet recovered from the trouser of the body.
"The post-mortem was conducted at a Bhor-based hospital and the doctor claimed the death is due to drowning. There is no bruise mark and a gold chain was found around the body's neck. There is a possibility that the car might have swerved to one side after losing control and fallen off the bridge into the river."
Lele, Chintan and Qureshi had started their three-day trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar and Goa on Lele’s Silver Hyundai MH 12 FY 4510 from Baner on Friday midnight. The trio had picked up their colleague Shrutika Chandwani as she wanted to go to her hometown Kolhapur for Diwali.
The CCTV footage furnished by rural police shows the vehicle and occupants at Khed-Shivapur toll post on Saturday wee hours. The last tower location of all four phones were around 2.45 am at Kapurhol about 14 km from the toll post.
NDRF deputy commandant SA Ahmed said, "We have deployed a team of 45 men and a team of six divers for the search operation. We carried out our operation till late evening and will resume tomorrow morning. "
Read earlier report here: Pune-based advertisement company owner, 3 employees on Karnataka trip go missing mysteriously
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