Two drown in Pavana backwaters

A weekend outing to Pavana dam near Lonavala in district turned tragic for a group of picnickers as two members of the group, both IT professionals, drowned in the backwaters today.
Police said a group of nine people from Pune, including three women, yesterday went to Pavna area, 110 kms from here, for camping.
The incident occurred this morning when two men from the group entered the water after clicking photos near the Pavna backwaters.
"After clicking photos near the backwater, Mohit Jadhav (28) and one Ajinkya Shinde ventured into the water. However, they started drowning apparently after they failed to gauge the depth of water. Hearing their cries, Ved Prakash Rana (28) and one Shubham (also members of the group) rushed to save them," a Lonavala rural police officer said.

While all the four started drowning, other group members raised an alarm following which some locals rushed to their rescue, he said.
While Shubham and Shinde were pulled out of water safely, Jadhav and Rana could not be saved, the officer said.
"Members of Shivdurg Mitra and people from INS Shivaji, an Indian Naval station located in Lonavala, later fished out the bodies (of Jadhav and Rana)," he said, adding that the bodies were sent for postmortem and further investigation is on.