A 22-year-old businessman has been missing after he drove his rented car off a ferry ramp into a river on a Goa island, police officers aware of the matter said on Sunday.
Rescue personnel pull out the car from the river. (HT Photo)
The missing person was identified by police as Bhasudev Bhandari, originally from Bharuch, Gujarat. Bhandari was accompanied by his 22-year-old friend, a management student, who managed to swim ashore to safety after the car plunged into the murky waters of the Cumbajua river, off Goa’s St Estevam islet and 20km from the state capital Panaji, police said. Bhandari had come to Goa for the weekend to visit her and was to return to Gujarat on Sunday.
Police officers refrained from sharing the identity of the woman. According to locals, the incident may have happened because Bhandari thought the ferry ramp was a road, and the woman told the police they were being chased by another car after a traffic incident.
Police said the accident took place in the early hours of Sunday, at around 1.30am. “At around 12.45am, the rented hatchback car was travelling from Goa Institute of Management, Sanquelim, to Panaji. It met with a minor accidentinvolving a sedan at Marcel around 1am, but did not stop. The occupant of the sedan started tailgating the small car,” police said in a statement.
The sedan was yet to be tracked down, police added. Briefing the media, fire service personnel said that they received a call at around 2am a local informing them of the incident. “We received a call at around 2am on Sunday and immediately dispatched two teams to the site to begin a search and rescue operation. The woman was found at the scene and she told us that her friend, who was driving the vehicle, was not to be found. She had swum to the shore on her own after exiting the vehicle,” Ajit Kamat, the Goa state fire chief, said.
“We traced the vehicle with the help of Navy divers and later pulled it ashore with the help of a crane. However, the driver of the vehicle was not found inside,” he added.
A resident of the area, Agnelo Menezes, said he was woken up by the woman who appeared shaken. “She told me about the incident and that her friend was nowhere to be found. A few of us accompanied her to the river bank and called the police. The police arrived a little after 3am and took her with them,” Menezes said.
“She told us they were speeding because they were being followed by another vehicle that gave chase after a minor accident. It appears that they thought the ferry ramp was a road and tried to drive through,” Menezes added.
Emergency response personnel continued their search operation through Sunday. “By morning, we were able to trace the vehicle and retrieve it. The missing passenger is yet to be traced,” police added.
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