Maharashtra CM’s entourage chased family away, says victim’s relative

Relatives of those missing and killed in the bridge collapse have said that they were being kept in the dark about rescue operations and were driven away by the entourage of politicians whom they had tried to approach in their desperation.

Pramod Surve, brother-in-law of Sunil Vaikar, who was driving the Jaigad-to-Mumbai Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus, said Vaikar was his family’s sole breadwinner and he was not given any information by the MSRTC, local police or the local civil hospital in Mahad about his whereabouts. “We had received a call from one of Sunil’s MSRTC colleagues about the accident. When we visited the spot on Wednesday morning, everyone told us to go to the hospital, as the bodies would be sent there. The bodies arrived at 2.30 pm but there was no information about Sunil,” said Mr Surve.

Mr Surve and other family members then went down to the accident site. “We tried to speak with (PWD minister) Chandrakant Patil and we tried to approach (chief minister) Devendra Fadnavis, but his men chased us away. We kept shouting that we were relatives of the missing people, but they just shoved us to the side and spoke with the media. Not one politician has asked if the relatives were here or not,” said Mr Surve, breaking down.

Mr Surve added that Vaikar had voluntarily switched his duty with a colleague who needed to take his son to a school programme.

Suman Vaje, brother-in-law of the Sampada Vaje, stood in shock as her body was brought to Mahad civil hospital. Sampada was one among the party of eight travelling in a Tavera that was seen plunging into the river after the two buses. “Sampada had married my brother Sunil and had gone to visit her father who had taken ill at Zambare. The other six people in the Tavera were her maternal aunt and brothers. They have two kids, a boy in class 11 and a daughter in class 8. We don’t have the heart to tell them that their parents are no more,” said Mr Vaje.

Young Milind Monde said his father, Anant, had hitched a ride in the ill-fated Tavera from Rajapur to Mumbai and they had last spoken around 4 pm. “He told us he’d got into a Tavera with some people and that he would be home soon. I have no information about where he is,” he said, wiping away tears.

The bodies of around 10 people have been found, but there were about 22 people in the two MSRTC buses and eight to nine people in the Tavera.