Two men from Kauthuli in Atpadi taluka killed while bringing Navratri flame from Tuljapur

Atpadi: Two men from Kauthuli in Atpadi taluka were killed in an accident on the Tuljapur-Dharashiv road while bringing the goddess's flame from Tuljapur for Navratri. They were aged 40 and 38. The accident, at the very start of the festival, has plunged the village into grief.

Every year the village's Bhavani Navratri Mandal brings a flame from the Tulja Bhavani temple at Tuljapur. This year too, 25 to 30 young men set out for Tuljapur on Saturday in a pick-up van and on three or four motorcycles. On the way back with the flame, at around midnight, the motorcycle the two men were riding skidded, and an unidentified vehicle coming from behind hit it at the same moment. Both were seriously injured and died.

One of them ran a paan shop and the other worked in the gold-refining (galai) trade. They were cremated in a sombre atmosphere on Sunday evening, attended by a large number of villagers, relatives and friends.

Source: Pudhari