A 20-year-old marine engineering student died after a basketball hoop structure fell on him at a campus in Pune.
The student, Vishal Verma, was a second-year cadet at Tolani Maritime Institute. On the day of the incident, he had gone out in the morning for a walk and some exercise inside the campus.
While exercising, Vishal tried to do pull-ups using the basketball hoop. During this, the entire backboard and frame suddenly broke and fell on him, hitting his head badly. He suffered serious injuries and started bleeding heavily on the spot.
Other students and staff nearby quickly rushed to help him and took him to a hospital. However, doctors declared him dead.
Vishal was from Basti. He had joined the institute in 2024 and was studying in a four-year B.Tech course, which was supposed to finish in 2028.
The institute’s principal, Dr Sanjeet Kanungo, said the incident was “very tragic.” He said Vishal was doing pull-ups when the structure collapsed and caused serious injury to his head. He also said the institute will check what went wrong.
Police have started an investigation. Officials said they are checking if the basketball structure was rusted or had any fault in its fitting. Inspector Santosh Patil said a case has been registered.
This is not the first such incident. A few months ago in Rohtak, a young basketball player died after a pole fell on him during practice. A similar case was also reported earlier in Bahadurgarh.
These incidents have raised serious questions about the maintenance and safety of sports equipment in schools and institutes across the country.
