Three youths drown in Pavana river

Pune: In the second major drowning incident in Maval taluka over the last two days, three youths from Pune died in the Pavana river at Thugaon village, about 65 km from Pune, on Sunday afternoon.The Pune Rural police and a local rescue team conducted a search operation and recovered the bodies.On May 1, three men had drowned in the Jadhawadi dam at Navlakh Umbre village in Maval taluka. On the same day, one person had drowned in the Pavana river at Salumbre village.An officer from the Wadgaon Maval police told TOI that a group of eight college students, including three girls, had gone to Thugaon for an outing on Sunday. "One of them, Ayan Shaikh (20) of Hadapsar entered the Pavana river. He failed to gauge the depth and started to go under water. His friends, Prathamesh Shinde (21) and Ashwin Bhalerao (19) of Yerawada jumped in to rescue him. However, all three drowned," the officer said.Nilesh Garade of Wanyajeev Rakshak, Maval, said his team reached the spot immediately. Local residents had already started a rescue operation and brought out the three bodies, he said.Pintu Mankar of a private ambulance services, who reached the spot, told TOI: "The friend of one of the victims said the youths had their last examination paper on Monday. They had taken a break on Sunday and were about to leave when the accident happened," he added.