In an incident that triggered intense protests, two schoolgirls were killed and another was injured, when they were run over by a speeding SUV belonging to a local Shiv Sena leader at Baramati in Pune district on Thursday morning.
local Sena leader Pappu Mane, who is suspected to have been behind the wheels of the speeding vehicle at the time of mishap, absconded soon after the mishap which took place at 7.30 am. The aggrieved local residents set the car on fire after the mishap.
Identifying the girls killed in the mishap as Samiksha Vitkar who was 13 years old and Divya Pawar who was 12 years old, the Baramati police said that they were on their way to their school on Baramati-Morgaon road, when a Pajero driven allegedly by Mane sped over them.
“Both the deceased girls were residents of the military colony at Baramati. They —along with another girl — were on their way to Someshwar school when the incident took place. The third girl who was injured in the incident, was rushed to a nearby hospital,” a police officer said.
Soon after the incident took place, the local residents staged a spontaneous “rasta roko” in the arrest of the local Sena leader who was driving the vehicle at that time.
Though the SUV is registered in the name of a relative of the local Sena leader, Mane uses the vehicle regularly. “There were at least three persons inside the SUV involved in the mishap. We have summoned a couple of them for questioning to know about the whereabouts of Mane,” the police said.