Two Marathi television actors – Anand Abhyankar, 49, and Akshay Pendse, 33 – who were travelling by car from Pune to Mumbai, died in an accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway around 11pm on Sunday.
Suresh Patil, the 30-year-old driver of Anand Abhyankar’s new Wagon R car was shocked when their vehicle was hit from the right side by a tempo coming from the opposite direction in a fraction of a second on the Pune-Mumbai expressway.
Patil, a resident of Kandivli (Mumbai), where Abhyankar has his residence, was working with Anand as his driver for last six months. He said that they began the journey on Sunday morning for Pune and Anand drove the car till Panvel from Kandivli.
He said that he drove the car from Panvel to Khalapur on the expressway and then again, Abhyankar drove the car to the Agriculture College in Pune where he was shooting for Duniyadari.
Patil recalled that after the pack up, Anand made it a point to visit his parents’ residence at Dahanukar Colony as he wanted to show them, his new car. They reached Dahanukar Colony at 9 pm and after spending some time with his parents, they began the journey to Mumbai. Anand had asked Akshay Pendse and his family to come to Dahanukar Colony from where they left for Mumbai.
Patil said that after leaving Pune, Anand asked him to stop at a spot after which he started driving.
He recollected, “After crossing the first toll naka, we noticed a speeding tempo and before we could grasp anything, it hit our vehicle from the right side and both the doors on the right side, bore the brunt of the collision.’’
Patil then called up Anand’s wife Anjali, who called up Anand’s close friend Jayant Godbole. Godbole called an ambulance and informed others but it was too late.
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