Latur: A 40-year-old farmer was killed after being caught in a sugarcane harvester during harvesting operations at Aashiv village in Ausa tehsil on Wednesday afternoon.
The victim, identified as Shankar Prabhakar Sawant (40), a resident of Aashiv, died on the spot after the powerful machine mutilated his body.
According to police, a factory-operated harvester had arrived at Sawant’s field for sugarcane cutting. At around 2.30 pm on Wednesday, while harvesting was underway, some sugarcane fell aside. As the victim attempted to put the fallen cane back into the harvester, he accidentally got trapped in the machine. Within moments, the harvester’s heavy mechanism caused severe injuries, leading to his instantaneous death.
When Sawant was not seen on the farm later in the afternoon, his wife and son began searching for him. After nearly two hours, they found his mobile phone and slippers in the sugarcane field, raising suspicion. On being questioned, the harvester driver initially evaded answers, claiming that the machine had developed a fault. Despite the search, Sawant could not be located till 7 pm.
Subsequently, the harvester driver realised that the farmer had been trapped and killed inside the machine. He stopped the harvester and informed its owner, who then alerted the Bhada police. Three police teams rushed to the spot around 7 pm, retrieved the body from the machine and conducted a panchnama.
The incident has cast a pall of gloom over the village. Sawant is survived by his mother, wife, two sons and two daughters. A case has been registered at Bhada police station, and further investigation is being carried out by Assistant Police Inspector Mahavir Jadhav.
