Two badminton players killed in car crash, one critical

Two young national-level badminton players were killed while one was critically injured early on Sunday when their car rammed into a tree on Katraj-Dehu Road bypass near Balewadi. Chatuhshrungi police have identified the deceased as Siddhant Ranjeet Ghorpade (21) and Saurabh Paralikar (23), both residents of Bhusari Colony in Kothrud, while the injured has been identified as Devavrat Satish Bhalerao (20), a resident of Mayur Colony, also in Kothrud. Police said the three were on their way to Wakad from Chandani Chowk around 12.30 am when Siddhant, who was driving the car, lost control over his Indigo Manza car and rammed it into a tree near Balewadi stadium. Inspector S B Navle said, “Siddhant and Saurabh were killed on the spot. Devavrat was rushed to a private hospital in Chinchwad. His condition was said to be critical.” Devavrat was to undergo a surgery for multiple fractures on Sunday night. Navle added, “We are yet to ascertain from where they were coming and where they were headed for. We are yet to speak to family members of any of them. We need to give them time to come out of the shock.” Police said Ghorpade’s family hailed from Kolhapur and had shifted to Pune a few years ago. Ghorpade had completed his engineering and started working for a private company about six months ago. Uday Sane, joint secretary of Pune District Metropolitan Badminton Association (PDMBA), said, “This is a great loss to us. Paralikar was an amazing sportsperson and had represented Maharashtra in many national-level inter-university tournaments. We had a lot of hope from him. Sidhhant was the runner-up in the state championship in 2007 in the under 19 category. He too had represented state at the national level. Devavrat is a talented young player. We have been told that his condition is improving. We hope that he recovers fast,” he added.