[noopster]

Updated 05/11 & 6/11: Names and other details corrected

From DNA online link courtesy tjacob:

Four people of an advertisement and marketing firm in the city, including a female colleague, who had embarked on a trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka on Friday night, have gone missing.

Police claimed that the last location of all four was somewhere ahead of Khed Shivapur toll plaza on Pune Satara Road.

As per the information given by the Chatuhshrungi police, all four were associated with an advertisement and marketing firm in Kothrud. The four people who went missing have been identified as Pranav Lele, Chintan Bich, Sahil Kureishi and Shrutika Chandwani. Lele was one of the partners of the firm and other three were the employees.

---
According to a post on reddit.com, 4 young people are suspected to have gone missing since Friday 1st November en route Goa from Pune in a white i20 registration number MH 12 FY 4510 (Edit: car is a silver i20 Asta).

There seems to be no foolproof way of validating this claim but this has been posted here in good faith assuming nobody would joke about something as serious as this. since this is Diwali week and presumably a number of Team BHPians are in and around Goa, request all to keep your eyes peeled for any signs of the missing persons.

Excerpts from the original reddit post- details highlighted in bold:

Hello /r/India, need your help locating four of my friends who left for Goa from Pune two days ago and are missing since then

We have lodged a police complaint, but we don't want to depend on that only. They are in a white Hyundai i20.

Edit 1 : Car reg. No. MH 12 FY 4510
Edit 2 : They were 3 guys and 1 girl. Working in IT.
Edit 3 : The parents along with police are combing the Pune Goa highway.
Edit 4 : Posting names of the guys : Pranay, Vinay and Sahil.
Edit 5 : All the major hospitals along the highway have been called up by parents/police, there are no news of any accident.
Edit 6 : Police has found that they passed a toll booth but there's no entry at the next toll booth. Police are searching in between now. This was while they were going to Goa, that is on Friday.
Edit 7 : Nothing found by Police between the toll booths.
I am going away for some time....Will update you guys soon.
Edit 8 (2:50 PM): Goa police is contacting hotels to see if they checked in anywhere.
Edit 9 (6:00 PM): No news yet.

A post has been added to the original reddit thread providing this link. Redditor members are requested to upvote that to ensure visibility there.

[noopster]

Related link that may have some useful information: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...aga-beach.html

[tjacob]

Its in the news.

Seems like they still haven't been found.

Four people of an advertisement and marketing firm in the city, including a female colleague, who had embarked on a trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka on Friday night, have gone missing.

Police claimed that the last location of all four was somewhere ahead of Khed Shivapur toll plaza on Pune Satara Road.

As per the information given by the Chatuhshrungi police, all four were associated with an advertisement and marketing firm in Kothrud. The four people who went missing have been identified as Pranav Lele, Chintan Bich, Sahil Kureishi and Shrutika Chandwani. Lele was one of the partners of the firm and other three were the employees.

“On Friday, Pranav told us that he and his two friends Sahil and Chintan would be going to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar for a three-day picnic. They said they would be dropping their female colleague to Kolhapur, since she is from that city and was planning to go home for Diwali,” said Ashok Lele, father of Pranav.

He said that on Friday around 10.30 pm, he left their Kothrud home for Baner in his car, where he picked up his three colleagues and at around 10.30pm left the city.

He even said, “I told him not to choose night journey and advised him to go in the morning, however, he did not listen to me.”

Pranav’s parents were worried when neither Pranav nor his colleagues’ phones were reachable on Saturday for a long time. The family then approached the Chatuhshrungi police and lodged a missing complaint. Now the case has been transferred to Kothrud police station since Lele started journey from his Kothrud residence.

As per the information given by a police officer attached with Chatuhshrungi police station, police tried to trace their phones’ location.

They came to know that their last location was somewhere ahead of Khed-Shivapur Toll Plaza. After that, the mobile phones of all four were switched off.

“We have informed the Satara and Kolhapur police over the wireless to trace the car and have given them the registration number of the vehicle. Till Sunday evening, our efforts did not yield any success as their locations could not be traced,” police said.

A team of city police along with the Satara and Kolhapur police are trying to locate the car throughout the route.

“We are also checking whether the car met with an accident en route, however. the possibility has been ruled out as no accident has been reported in the past two days in which a car was involved,” he added. He said that they have also put the phones on tracking.

A police team from Satara police have even started search operation in the Khambataki Ghat near Satara, however, they did not get any success.

Police said that it has been confirmed from the Khed Shivapur toll plaza authorities that they had crossed the plaza at around 2.30 am on Saturday and after sometime, their phones got switched off.

The Satara police said they have circulated the car registration number throughout the district and the investigations are on.

[sajo]

This is very puzzling. What could cause all 4 phones to go dead at around the same time ? (~2.45 AM). One possibility is water contact, in which case it is rather worrying.

PS : The chap Pranav , whose car it was , is from my school.

[Warwithwheels]

In post# 1, There seems to be a contradiction in their profession. The first quote says that they are associated with an Ad & Marketing firm.

The second quote, line: Edit 2 - says that they work in the IT industry!

And the color of the car as reported in TOI is silver and not white.

Is this contradiction something to be worried about?

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

Is this contradiction something to be worried about?

It's a general reflection of how poorly our so-called news stories are written up, nothing else. I can imagine the frustration of the parents and friends of the missing people when wrong details get reported since that can make a big difference in whether they are found eventually.

Today's Times of India says the group were on their way to Gokarna and then Mahabaleshwar. That doesn't make any sense: Gokarna is in coastal North Karnataka while Mahabaleshwar is a hill station in Maharashtra. More likely the reporter relied on a DNA report that said they were headed to "Gokarna Mahabaleshwar" (which is a temple in the coastal Karnataka town, and not too far from Goa). The family of one of the missing men has reportedly said his son told them he was headed to Goa.

The original reddit post even got the name of one person and the colour of the i20 wrong. Police sources have been quoted today as saying it is a silver i20 (Asta), which was also pointed out by a Redditor who referred the national car registry records.

Earlier reports said they left Pune at 10:30 pm, but the new ones claim the tollbooth footage at Khed Shivapur (very near Pune) are for 2:30 am.

The worrying thing is that nearly 5 days later nobody has a clue where they are.

[srishiva]

Phones would either go dead or will be switched off. Both can be ascertained from operator.

Maybe their area of work is IT but in a ad firm.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Phones would either go dead or will be switched off. Both can be ascertained from operator.

Good point. I sincerely hope the service providers act faster in this case than they have in others, e.g. HV Kumar's. Here the stakes are much higher since it is possibly life or death.

Maybe their area of work is IT but in a ad firm.

This report says

One of the partners of Paradigm Plus, an advertisement and marketing firm in Kothrud, three employees, including a woman, went missing under mysterious circumstances during their three-day picnic trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka.

It's possible that one or more of them were web marketing professionals and got reported as "IT employees".

[shankar.balan]

Any further info on whether they have been located? Could it be a case of dacoits like what happened to a chap from Bangalore who was driving to Hyderabad some few months ago?

[Warwithwheels]

A random search on the SNS, suggests they indeed work for the Ad industry. The names in the news report have been wrongly spelt. Their profiles on the SNS carry a pic of a silver i20 (pre facelift) which tallies with the number in the report.

[sajo]

Apparently, Chinan Buch's body has been found near the Neera river in Satara. No sign of the rest of the people or the car. Unfortunate. May his soul rest in Peace.

Source (it is in Marathi)

[extreme_torque]

Lord! Has the car been found yet? If not, this does not look like a simple case of drowning.

[tanwaramit]

Yes, here is the link

http://www.dnaindia.com/pune/report-...-river-1914530

Body of Pune-resident Chitan Buch found in Nira river

The body of one of the four employees of an advertisement and marketing firm in Pune who had embarked on a trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka on Friday night has been found in Nira river. The identified person is Chintan Buch. Police are investigating the case and searching for the other three.

The three others who went missing are Pranav Lele, Sahil Kureishi and Shrutika Chandwani.

[Gotham_City]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

http://www.dnaindia.com/pune/report-...-river-1914530

Body of Pune-resident Chitan Buch found in Nira river

The body of one of the four employees of an advertisement and marketing firm in Pune who had embarked on a trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka on Friday night has been found in Nira river.

Nira river is just not on the Pune Goa route. I think this sad development has further deepened the mystery.

R.I.P.

[noopster]

NDTV 24X7 is now leading with this news. Reporter on site is claiming the police believe their car accidentally fell into the river at a bridge on the Pune-Satara road (NH4). Divers are being summoned from Pune and Kolhapur to hunt for the others.

Originally Posted by Gotham_City

Nira river is just not on the Pune Goa route. I think this sad development has further deepened the mystery.

Not entirely accurate. The body was apparently found quite close to the highway and it fits in well with the fact that they were last tracked at a place called Kikwe (which according to Google maps is quite close by)