19-year-old drives bike into Futala Lake, ends life

Nagpur: Atharv Anandewar, 19, first-year student of a polytechnic, rolled down a slope on his bike into Futala Lake to end his life on Monday. He had earlier spoken to his friends asking them to take care of his mother and also relayed them about his decision to end life through a conference call.
Ambazari police have procured CCTV footage of the incident in which the teenager can be spotted gradually moving on his bike towards the slope leading to the lake. There was a boundary wall guarding the lake, but it has been pulled down due to ongoing renovation work.
Sources said a mentally disturbed woman’s car too had slid down the slope into the lake water from the same place.
Anandewar, who had an outing with a group at a resort on Saoner Road a day ago, stunned his friends by ending his life within 24 hours. Prior to his taking the drastic step, Anandewar had spoken to friends, but did not reveal the reason behind ending his life.
Anandewar, staying at Ambedkar Nagar at Control Wadi, was the younger of the two siblings. His mother is learnt to have gifted him the bike around a year ago. His father worked at a tile factory in MIDC.
A friend, who had rushed to dissuade Anandewar after he relayed his decision, said he wanted to save his friend but did not know swimming. “We had managed to reach Futala Lake, but he had already taken the plunge,” said the friend.
“We could see him drowning. One of us had even jumped into the lake, but to no avail. Some of us also had thrown bamboos and planks into the water for Atharv to latch-on, but he soon disappeared under the water,” said the friend.
Senior inspector Narendra Hiware of Ambazari police station said the bike was fished out of the lake with the help of fire department personnel. “The body could be traced after a couple of hours and it has been sent for postmortem,” he said.
Ambazari police have registered the case as accidental death.