14 People Killed During Ganesh Immersion in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Fourteen people were killed during Ganesh immersion in Maharashtra, including eight from Nashik district, police said.

In Sinnar, Rameshwar Shirsat (21) and Sandeep Shirsat (25) drowned when they had gone to immerse the idols of Lord Ganesha.

Nilesh Patil (25) too drowned during the immersion in Wadiware, they said.

Bhushan Kasabe drowned at Trimbakeshwar while Sumit Kantilal Pawar (14) and Sachin Devare (16) drowned in Malegaon tehsil.

Amol Patil and Roshan Salve too met a watery grave near Pimplad and Bendkule-Mala respectively, police said.

Three youths, who were part of a domestic idol immersion, drowned in Kad river at Jalalkheda in Nagpur district. One casualty each was also reported from Nanded, Sangli and Parbhani districts, they said.

On the last day of the Ganesh festival (Anant Chaturdashi), 55,667 public idols and 10,80,499 households idols were immersed in Maharashtra.

This includes 10,955 public and 56,250 household idols in Mumbai, police said.

Police and district administration had made special arrangements for immersion, which began on Thursday and went on till this morning.

Several police personnel and paramilitary forces were deployed for the immersion proceedings in the state. Leaves of police were also cancelled in major cities.

Meanwhile, immersion procession of Lord Ganesha idols in Pune ended peacefully this afternoon as lakhs of devotees bid adieu to the elephant-headed deity.

The immersion procession which started yesterday ended nearly after 28 hours and thirty minutes. No untoward incident was reported in the city, a Pune police official said.

Yesterday, the idols of five 'manache' (revered) Ganesha were immersed while an idol of the popular 'Shrimant Dagadusheth Halwai Ganpati' was immersed this morning.