Police reported on Saturday that amid various occurrences related to the immersion of Ganesh idols in some areas of Maharashtra, at least 20 people died, 14 of whom drowned. On Friday, the 10-day Ganesh festival that had begun on August 31 came to a close.
An official reported that one person perished at Devli and three people drowned at Sawangi in the Wardha district. He claimed that during the immersion of an idol in a pond in the Yavatmal district, two people perished.
He added that two other people perished in the north Maharashtra district of Jalgaon, one each at Chalisgaon and Jamner, and that two people drowned in separate instances at Supa and Belvandi in the Ahmednagar district. According to him, there was a death at Ghodegaon and Yavat in the Pune district, as well as in the Dhule district, Lonikand in the Satara district, and Solapur city.
During Ganesh immersion, a vehicle accident claimed the lives of four people in the Sakkardara neighbourhood of Nagpur, he claimed. Due to heavy rains, a tree fell on a Ganesh pandal in Kolbad, Thane, killing a 55-year-old woman and injuring four others. A municipal official reported that the incident happened on Friday night.
The woman, Rajashri Walavalkar, was critically hurt in the accident and was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. "A giant tree fell on the pandal while the 'aarti' of Lord Ganesh idol was on as part of its preparation for immersion," the official added.
In the meantime, during a march in Panvel, Raigad district, at least 11 people, including a nine-month-old kid, were hurt after receiving an electric shock. An official reported that the event happened on Friday night in Wadghar Koliwada as a result of a generator cable breaking.
According to him, "at least 11 people who were in the parade came in contact with the cable and were hurt, including four youngsters." All of them are responding well to the treatment, and some of them were sent immediately to a private hospital while others were taken to a state-run hospital in Panvel.
During the immersion, a few incidents involving law-and-order issues were also recorded in some sections of the state. At Tophkhana in the Ahmednagar district, a fight broke out between Eknath Shinde's followers and Uddhav Thackeray's of the Shiv Sena, according to an official.
During the Ganesh immersion procession in Jalgaon, a group of individuals threw stones at the mayor's home, and in Pune city's Mundhwa, two groups got into a fight. In the Pune district's Shikrapur, there was a fight over firecrackers that went off, while in Chandrapur, there was an altercation between Ganesh mandal volunteers and law enforcement, he added.
According to the police, the Ganesh celebration and the immersion procession in Mumbai went off without a hitch. The Mumbai Police Department's Twitter account stated, "#GaneshUtsav2022 in Mumbai conducted & celebrated peacefully, smoothly & enthusiastically. I thank all the Mumbaikars, Members of all the Ganesh Mandals & all the Lord Ganesha's devotees, who followed all instructions & cooperated with us, the MUMBAI POLICE!
Like every year, we had the chance to assist the worshippers this year as well, according to the Mumbai police.