Tragic! On his way home with sweets, 19-year-old boy dies in accident

Tragic! On his way home with sweets, 19-year-old Pune boy dies in accident

Pranav Neelakanth

In a cruel twist of fate, a 19-year-old student who was returning home after buying sweets to celebrate his engineering results, died after meeting with an accident. Despite their grief, his bereaved family has donated his eyes.

Pranav Neelakanth alias Udhav Gawade, a resident of Dehu Road, was riding home on his bike on Thursday evening when he collided with another biker. An unconscious Neelakanth was rushed to Yashwantro Chavan Memorial hospital, but succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at the hospital late Thursday night. He died due to excessive internal bleeding. A case of accidental death has been registered with the Dehu Road police station which falls under the jurisdiction of Pune rural police.

Neelkanth was a final year diploma student of mechanical engineering at the Pimpri Chinchwad Polytechnic College affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and had secured 66 per cent in his exams. He was elated with this score and had planned to enroll for a degree in the same stream.

His cousin Sujit Gawade said, "Pranav was always passionate about machines and loved innovation. He was eager to take up BE for which he was required to get a first class. At 4 pm he called us and informed us that he had secured good marks and was buying sweets. But, he never returned."

Another cousin Amit Landge said, "Just eight day ago, we celebrated Pranav's 19th birthday and had discussed his career plan. He was the only child of his parents." Langde's friend, Ram Phuge, runs Jagruti, a non-profit organisation that assists in organ donation. When the incident took place, Langde with the help of their family doctor Prashant Khaire, contacted Pranav's parents, who despite their grief immediately agreed to the organ donation.

"However, due to his death in an accident, we weren't able to retrieve the organs," he said.

Ram Phuge, founder of Jagruti, said, "Last week, another teen died in an accident and when we consulted his parents, they asked us to go ahead with the organ donation. In a year, we have managed to get 46 eye donations."