Police have named the eight students who drowned off Diveagar beach in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, India, on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, identifying all of them as 16-year-old residents of Alandi.
The dead are Rajveer Yuvraj Vahile, Tanmay Dattatray Vahile, Soham Tukaram Bhandvalkar, Kaustubh Sandeep Daund, Yash Kiran Wankhede, Kaivalya Satish Wasankar, Sumit Bharat Ahire and Pranav Ramdas Bansode.
Police said the students drowned after they ventured into the sea and were swept away during a picnic. Winners Academy, a private coaching institute in Alandi, in Pune district, had enrolled all of them in Class XI and Class XII. The official put the size of the group that traveled to the coast for the outing at 48 people — 25 boys, 17 girls and six teachers.
A Picnic Turns Deadly
“Today, teachers and students from ‘Winners Academy’ in Alandi, Pune, visited Diveagar Beach. They ventured into the sea but failed to accurately gauge the water conditions and the result was that eight students lost their lives,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Raju Sonawane told ANI on Oct. 1.
An alert brought Search and rescue teams racing to the spot, and they started pulling bodies from the water. The day at the shore collapsed into a frantic search along the shoreline within minutes. One student remained missing for hours, and a senior police officer said, “By the evening, even the missing student’s body was found.”
All eight boys were hauled out of the sea by Local residents and rescue workers and carried to the primary health center at Borli, the officer said, and doctors there declared them dead. At Diveagar, all eight bodies had been recovered. The 34 surviving students were shifted to a hotel in Diveagar.
Academy Sealed After Shutdown
Police registered an accidental death report and began investigating whether safety or supervision lapses contributed to the drownings. Police personnel and local authorities are carrying out further legal and administrative formalities, the official said.
Local residents gathered outside Winners Academy in Alandi late on the night of Oct. 1. The Alandi Municipal Council sealed the academy on Friday, Oct. 2, saying it had been operating without a business no-objection certificate and trade license. Alandi observed a shutdown the same day as families held last rites for the eight boys.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the deaths of the Winners Academy students “extremely tragic and painful.” Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in a condolence message on Oct. 1, said the drowning of the eight Winners Academy students “is extremely heartbreaking and unfortunate,” adding, “We offer our heartfelt tribute to the unfortunate students who met with this tragic end, and all of us share in the grief of their families.”
Echoes of Murud, 2016
A busload of students has died on Raigad’s coastline before. Pune’s Abeda Inamdar Senior College lost 14 students at Murud beach, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) south of Mumbai, on Feb. 1, 2016. Girls accounted for ten of the victims, and every one of them was aged between 18 and 20.
Initial information suggested a human chain of 10 students had tried to save four drowning campus mates, only to be dragged under themselves. A picnic group of 130 included the students, Raigad police said, and college authorities said about 10 staff members, including teachers, had accompanied them.
Thirteen bodies were recovered by the Navy and the Coast Guard on Feb. 1, 2016, and searchers found the body of Madaki Saif Ahmed the next morning, Feb. 2, 2016. Hundreds of relatives and friends turned out at burial grounds and crematoriums across Pune for the last rites, and the college declared a holiday on Feb. 2, 2016, to pay homage to the dead. The Maharashtra government announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin.
Court Pressed State on Safety
The Bombay High Court on Feb. 3, 2016, sought a probe into the drowning of the 14 students at Murud-Janjira, and it asked the state to explain why beach safety rules were not being enforced there. A bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil wanted a report on conditions at beaches across Raigad district and questioned why an existing government resolution on beach safety had not been implemented.
Bhagwanji Raiyani of Janhit Manch, a nongovernmental organization, had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition in 2009, and the hearing revived it. Civic authorities had earlier been ordered by the court to ensure the adequate appointment of lifeguards, watch towers and floodlights at night. Advocates Jamshed Mistry and Pradeep Havnur, appearing for the petitioner, held up Goa’s beach patrolling unit as a model for Maharashtra and said many of the court’s directions remained unimplemented at most beaches. The matter was posted by the bench to Feb. 12, 2016.
