NAVI MUMBAI: Waiting for a fellow villager who rushed into his house to quickly retrieve cash and a phone claimed the lives of 29 others from Mahad which was ravaged by a landslide recently. A survivor of the tragedy made this revelation on Tuesday.
The survivor, Sachin Sanas of Kondalkarwadi village, had spotted the ill-fated group from Taliye village waiting for their neighbour who had returned to his house on July 22, moments before the landslide struck. Sanas shouted out, telling them to move to a safe spot, said Kisan Deshmukh (75), a retired policeman.
But the people chose to stay put for the man to return. Later, the bodies of the 30 were found buried under the rubble. Among them was a child found close to its mother.
A little farther, a wad of torn notes of Rs 500 denomination was found near the body of Sampat Pol who had rushed into his house.
The cash, said another villager, was what they hoped would help them tide over the looming uncertainty of the situation. The cash has been handed over to Pol’s son, said Dilip Rayannavar, a tehsildar. Others who had scurried out of the same place, about an hour earlier, survived, said Deshmukh.
The next day, a team from National Disaster Response Force, or NDRF, trudged through a slushy 2km jungle path to reach the site.
Kunal Deshmukh from Varandh village said that the NDRF team also retrieved the cellphone besides the shredded currency notes.
Later, another phone was found on another dead person, said Sanjeev Kumar, sub-inspector of NDRF. “All of these have been handed over to the authorities,” he said.
