Five wrestlers and a driver were killed when the multi-utility vehicle (MUV) in which they were travelling rammed head-on into a tractor carrying sugarcane in Maharashtra's Sangli district early on Saturday. Seven others were injured.
The accident took place on the Kadegaon-Sangli road when they were returning from Aundh in Satara district after participating in a wrestling competition, the police said.
ANI
The five wrestlers, aged around 17-18 years, were identified as Shubham Gharage, Akash Desai, Vijay Patil, Sourabh Mane and Avinash Gaikwad. They were from Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara and belonged to the Kranti Kushti Sankul, an 'akhara' that trains upcoming wrestlers, mostly from underprivileged backgrounds.
"Some of the wrestlers had recently participated in various state-level championships," said Arun Lad, chairman of the Kranti Co-operative sugar factory group which runs the 'akhara'.
"They had done well in their weight categories at the state level and had the potential to make their mark at the national level," said Kaka Pawar, a former top-level wrestler who is now a coach.
"After hearing the crash, villagers rushed the wrestlers and driver to a local hospital where doctors declared them brought dead. The injured have been shifted to another hospital," said a senior police officer. A case under the Indian Penal Code and the Motor Vehicles Act was lodged at the Chinchni-Vangi police station and attempts were on to arrest the tractor driver who had fled, he added.
mumbai mirror
"We have announced Rs 1 lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. Around 130 wrestlers are trained in the centre (Kranti Kushti Sankul) and many of them are funded by the Kranti group. Most are from Kundal and nearby areas," said Lad.
On January 11, Sukhchain Singh Cheema, who won a bronze in wrestling at the 1974 Tehran Asiad, was killed when his car was hit by another vehicle in Patiala - less than a week after five powerlifters, including world champion Saksham Yadav, died in a car accident on the Delhi-Haryana border.