Final minutes of Maharashtra hill tragedy: Sarpanch offers iPhone, teen says ‘death only solution now’ | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar News
CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: Tisgaon sarpanch Sanjay Jadhav was among those desperately trying to talk 18-year-old Kunal Chandwade out of jumping off Khavdya Dongar in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.“We kept telling him to think of his mother and not take the step,” Jadhav said.When pleading failed, Jadhav offered to give Kunal an iPhone to keep him engaged and persuade him to step away from the edge.But the teenager appeared determined. “There is no solution now. There is only one solution,” he said, according to the sarpanch.As the three-hour standoff entered its final moments, Kunal’s father Murlidhar moved towards him, hoping to pull him back.Kunal suddenly jumped as his father tried to catch him and both fell to their deaths.Kunal, Murlidhar and his mother Sangeeta died within moments of each other at around 1pm on Friday.Police said Kunal had reached the hill around 10am and remained close to the edge despite repeated appeals from his parents, villagers and rescuers to move to safety.Fire brigade teams deployed safety nets below the steep cliff but their efforts were complicated as Kunal kept shifting his position along the edge.According to local residents, Kunal had been distressed after his parents refused to buy him an expensive mobile phone.Once his family learnt that he had gone to the hill, his parents rushed to the spot. Residents of Tisgaon, personnel from MIDC Waluj police station and fire brigade teams also joined the rescue effort.For nearly three hours, Sangeeta continued talking to her son and urging him to return to safety. Villagers also tried different ways to persuade him to step back from the edge.Jadhav said the teenager remained adamant despite the attempts to reason with him. His offer to give Kunal an iPhone was also intended to keep him talking and buy time for rescuers to bring him to safety.Police are now trying to establish exactly what happened in the final moments.“We are trying to establish the exact sequence of events,” police commissioner Pravin Pawar said.DCP Ratnakar Navale said the family belonged to Dhangar Pimpalgaon village in Jalna district. Relatives took the bodies to their village after police recovered them from the difficult terrain.The bodies were sent for postmortem, while investigators are recording statements from people who witnessed the incident.
