Two Mumbaikars spend 2 hours trying to save youth's life

Two Good Samaritans from Mumbai struggled for two hours in the middle of the night to get a badly injured youth to a hospital on the Mumbai Pune Expressway near Khopoli. However, despite their best efforts they could not save Anant Shinde, 23, a resident of Shivajinagar in Pune.

Atita Shinde (centre), with Ranjit Patil and their driver (left)

On October 20, Shinde and five of his friends were travelling in an Omni to Alibaug when the accident took place 100 metres before the Khopoli exit. Atita Shinde, 32, and her friend Ranjit Patil, 35, both embryologists and residents of Lalbaug, were travelling on the same road, when they spotted a group of youths begging motorists for help. They were heading back to Mumbai from their hometown in Karad.

Atita said, "It was Laxmi Pujan on Friday and we decided to travel late at night to avoid the usual rush. Around 2 am, we were on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway, when we noticed a youth lying on the ground covered in blood while his friends were pleading with people to halt and help. We thought we would stop and provide basic first aid. We sprinkled some water on Shinde and noticed that he was unconscious but alive. We, too, then started requesting people to take him in their car as our car was filled with luggage. When nobody stopped, we dumped a few of our things on the road and took him in our car along with two of his friends."

She added, "Unfortunately, all the hospitals there were closed for Diwali. When we finally got him to a hospital that was open, he passed away even as the doctors were attending to him."

The Omni van that met with an accident

Shinde and Patil were gutted about being unable to save Anant's life. "For two hours, we struggled to get him to a hospital. If he had got help sooner, his life could definitely have been saved. We saw people watching the accident and taking pictures and moving on, yet not one person offered any help," said Atita Shinde.

A case of accidental death has been registered with the Khopoli police station.