Celebrations turn sour, one killed, four injured

Ganpati visarjan turned sour for devotees as one person was killed and four others were injured in the city on Wednesday.

While four devotees travelling on the rooftop of a truck were injured after they were crushed under the Metro rail pillars in Ghatkopar West, a five-year-old was killed after being crushed by a truck.

The injured devotees were members of Sahitya Ratna Rickshaw Chalak Malak Mandal in Vidyavihar. At close to 6.30 pm the procession took off in a truck from Vidyavihar along with the Ganesha idol and members of the mandal to Juhu beach for immersion.

The four injured Sanjay Gaikwad (30), Anil Kamble (20), Vilas Gaikwad (19) and Somnath Sahapalak (26) were travelling on the truck rooftop along with others revellers. At around 8.30 pm, the truck had barely traversed five minutes through Manecklal Estate in Ghatkopar (West) on the Andheri-Kurla Road. The four injured who were travelling on the rooftop got crushed under metro rail pillars.

“The height of the truck is close to 14 feet. However, these four were travelling on the carrier of the truck. The truck was passing through the two pillars but as the metro pillar height was also close to that of the truck, the vehicle got stuck,” said Babban Khade, a relative of Sanjay.

The four injured who were sitting right at the mouth of the rooftop lay down on the roof, thinking the truck would pass through the narrow gap but the lower part of their body got stuck between the rooftop and the low lying via duct slab of the metro rail pillars. 

Somnath Sahapalak, 26, sustained severe injuries on his abdomen, so much so that his liver has gotten teared. “Somnath is under observation. He has sustained liver trauma but is stable at the moment,” said Dr Avinash Supe, dean, BMC-run Sion Hospital.  Sanjay, Anil and Vilas have sustained blunt injuries on their head and chest, said Dr Vidya Thakur, medical superintendent of Rajawadi Hospital.

Elsewhere in Sion, five-year-old Aayush Gupta was killed after being crushed by a truck which was carrying Chembur’s Jaiswal Ganeshotsav Mitra Mandal’s Ganesh idol for immersion. At around 8.30pm, Aayush was seated on the road divider near Gandhi Market in Matunga to watch the immersion processions along with his family. Locals said he was crushed under the front tyre of the truck after he slipped and fell on the road.