Twenty-nine-year-old journalist Yogesh Pawar lost his life in the Babu Genu building collapse, along with his father Anant. Yogesh, who worked with the Marathi daily Sakal, covering the transport beat, is remembered as a very helpful and affable person by his family and colleagues. He lost five other relatives, including the family of his paternal uncle Ashok. While confirming the loss of Pawar and others, his uncle Bhai said that the call by this correspondent reminded him of Yogesh, whom he had seen making similar calls to several people while covering stories. “I have seen Yogesh call other such people when he used to cover stories and accidents. In fact, your phone call reminds me of him. Yogesh would have done the same had he been alive and covering such an incident,” said the deceased’s uncle calmly. His colleague in Sakal, Krishnadarshan Jadhav, remembered Pawar as a “ready-to-help” person who never refused assistance. “I had once needed contact numbers for a story and he promised to revert to me late in the night. I thought he had forgotten, but he called me at 1 am with the contacts. I was too overwhelmed to respond,” added Mr Jadhav. Padmabhushan Deshpande, the editor of Sakal, said, “His story about ticket vending machines being sold to MSRTC and BEST at different rates, had led to the suspension of several officers in the ensuing investigation. There was another massive expose about the nexus between RTO agents and officials. He always ensured that stories were followed up to their logical end. We have lost an honest, hard-working and humble reporter to this tragedy.”
