NASHIK: Bodies of the missing Jalgaon cousins, Jia Pinjari (20) and Jishan Pinjari (20), were recovered from Volkhov River in Russia's Veliky Novgorod city Saturday morning, four days after they were swept away in the fast-flowing waters along with their three friends.
All five were from Maharashtra and studied at Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University.
Veliky Novgorod is around 190km from St Petersburg. The students were walking on the beach along the river when a strong wave pulled them into the water on Tuesday (June 4) evening.
Bodies of two students - Harshal Desale (19) from Jalgaon and Malik Gulamgous Mohammad Yakub (21) from Mumbai - were retrieved earlier in the week. Nisha Sonawane (19) of Pune was the only person to survive the tragedy. Harshal and Jishan had video-called their families moments before the accident. Jalgaon district collector Ayush Prasad said he had been in constant touch with Indian embassy officials in Russia and received the information about the recovery of two more bodies Saturday morning. "The Indian embassy is in the process of sending the bodies to India," he added.
Smita Wagh, Jalgaon MP said, "I spoke to Kumar Gaurav, the Consul General of India at St Petersburg in Russia, on Saturday morning. He said after the necessary medical and court procedures were complete, the bodies would be flown to India. It may take at least three more days."
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