Two students died and three others were seriously injured after the motorcycle they were travelling on skidded and fell into a roadside pit in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
The students were returning to their ashram school after attending a village fair.
The incident took place in the early hours of Monday in Jawhar taluka. The five students had reportedly left the Hiradpada Gagangiri Ashram School without permission to attend the Navratri festival in nearby Sarsun village.
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"The students managed to leave the hostel and rode together on a single motorcycle. While returning to the school between 2.30 am 3 am on October 19, their two-wheeler met with a horrific crash in Kongdi ghat, which resulted in the death of two students, identified as Sumit Motiram Bhingal , Pritam Ganesh Potinda . The other three students sustained critical injuries," a Jawhar police station official said.
A motorist passing by alerted the Jawhar police, following which the injured students were taken to a cottage hospital in Jawhar. Given their critical condition, they were later shifted to a hospital in Nashik for advanced medical treatment, an official said.
Following the incident, questions were raised over how the five students managed to leave the hostel late at night without being noticed by the school authorities.
An inquiry committee report by the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) highlighted serious security lapses at the institution. According to an official, the report found that non-residential students were being allowed inside the hostel and that CCTV cameras were not functioning despite earlier warnings.
Taking serious note of the incident, Siddharth Ramkumar, ITDP Project Officer and Assistant Collector in Jawhar, issued show-cause notices to the school management, headmaster, hostel warden and security watchman, the official said.
Amid public pressure and concerns over student safety, the school placed the headmaster, warden and watchman under suspension.
Meanwhile, a local organisation demanded that a criminal case be registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against the school headmaster, hostel warden, night watchman and management trustees.
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(With PTI Inputs)
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