Eight Class XI and XII students from a Pune coaching institute drowned at Diveagar beach in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Thursday after entering the sea during an outing. The students were among 48 people from Winners Academy in Alandi, including 42 students and six teachers, who had travelled to the coast.
Police said all eight bodies were recovered by evening.
Further proceedings are underway,” News agency ANI reported, quoting SP Office. Eight boys entered the water and were swept away after they misjudged the depth and the strength of the current. The beach falls under the Dighi Coastal Police Station. Search teams, local residents and police joined the rescue operation. “Eight students died after drowning in the sea off Diveagar beach in Raigad district. Bhau Maruti Salunkhe, who runs Mahakali Water Sports at Diveagar, and members of his team entered the water after learning that students had been swept away. Assistant Police Inspector Santosh Awati of the Dighi Sagari Borli Panchatan Police Station also reached the beach with his team. The students were taken to the Primary Health Centre at Borli Panchatan for medical and legal procedures. The students were identified as Tanmay Dattatray Vahile, Sumit Bharat Ahire, Pranav Ramdas Bansode, Kaivalya Satish Wasankar, Rajveer Yuvraj Vahile, Yash Kiran Wankhede, Soham Tukaram Bhandvalkar and Kaustubh Sandeep Daund. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar spoke to the Raigad collector after the incident and asked the administration to provide assistance to the families. I pay my heartfelt tribute to them. We share in the grief of all these families. All these students are from Alandi, and the local administration is coordinating to bring their bodies to Alandi. We offer our heartfelt tribute to the unfortunate students who met with this tragic end, and all of us share in the grief of their families. The deaths came about two weeks after two teenage friends drowned during a reel-making outing in Palghar district. Later that afternoon, they travelled to Nadipada near Umrothe village along the Pinjal River.
Police said the group, made up of 25 boys, 17 girls and six teachers, had travelled from Alandi in Pune district to Diveagar. A total of 48 students and teachers from Winners Academy, Alandi, Pune, comprising 25 boys, 17 girls, and 6 teachers, visited Dighi Sagari, Diveagar Beach, for a picnic/tour. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief in his post on social media platform X and said: “The incident of 8 students from Winners Academy in Alandi, drowning to death at the Dighi Port in Diveagar beach in Raigad district, who had come for tourism, is extremely tragic and heart-wrenching. Police said three school friends from Vivek Nagar in Wada had gone out on September 16 during the Ganeshotsav holiday to record videos. At about 4 pm, Gitesh Patil entered the flowing water, followed by Manav Rathod, while their friend Amey Jadhav filmed them on a mobile phone.
Police have registered a case and said the circumstances of the drowning are being investigated. Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in his condolence message said, “The incident of eight students from Winners Academy in Alandi, who had come to the Dighi Port and Diveagar in Raigad district for tourism on the seashore, drowning to death is extremely heartbreaking and unfortunate. Police said the two boys misjudged the depth and drowned.
