Rashid Rustom Irani, 60, a resident of Dastur Meher Road, Camp, Pune and the Manager of a renowned Irani Café in Kharadi lost his life on 14th November 2018. Irani was riding his scooter to work when he traversed across the road that connects Tadigutta Chowk to Mundhwa where his Café was located. The road was dug up by a PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) appointed contractor to repair a leak in the underground pipeline.

Irani, astride his Honda Activa scooter at 6.30 am slipped on this stretch of dug up road, lost his balance, fell and died of head injuries. He was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Following this incident, three persons and a junior engineer from the water distribution department of Pune Municipal Corporation have been arrested.

Prior to the accident, the contractor had been warned by the local police on night rounds to repair the road. However, despite warnings, the contractor turned a deaf ear and left the site unattended. The digging went on from 10 pm to 3 am. Passersby had even requested workers on site to put up barricades and wear reflective jackets so as to prevent any accident. Of the two holes dug, the workers had put a sign on one hole while the other hole – where Irani fell – was only covered with a tree branch and leaves.

Pandit Rejitwad, Assistant Police Inspector, Mundhwa Police Station and Amit Walke, Police Sub Inspector are investigating the case further. The three arrested are Shahurao Sheshrao Kakade,43, the contractor, Indrajit Vasantrao Deshmukh, 27, junior engineer, water distribution, Lashkar division and Uttereshwar Mohan Narsinghe, 33, supervisor. They are booked under Section 304 (a) of IPC and produced at a local court on Friday.

Despite warning and arrests of the accused, the fact remains that an innocent life was lost for no fault of his while the offenders will once again get away scot free. Irani was a family man. He leaves behind his wife, a son who is a sailor on a commercial vessel currently sailing near China and a daughter who lives in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The body of Irani is currently at the morgue at the Armed Forces Medical College with the funeral to be held tomorrow at 10 am. Following the incident and arrests, the PMC later hurriedly tarred the road while officials at the PMC water supply department failed to respond to any queries.