The youth who sustained fractures in both legs after being hit at Pulgate by the bus driven by Maharashtra state road transport corporation's driver Santosh Mane on January 25 underwent surgeries at the Sassoon hospital on Monday.

Twenty-year-old Praful Nair is bed ridden and will have to be in the hospital for a few more days because of which he will be unable to write the exams for an entry into the defence services.

Twenty-year-old Praful Nair, who sustained fractures in both legs after being hit at Pulgate by the bus driven by Maharashtra state road transport corporation's driver Santosh Mane on January 25, underwent surgery at the Sassoon Hospital on Monday.

"Nair had broken the femur bone of one leg and suffered knee fracture in the other. We operated on both his legs. A procedure called nailing was carried out to fix the broken femur bone, while the fracture in the other leg has been fixed with the help of screws," the orthopaedic surgeon, who carried out the procedure, said on the condition of anonymity.

Medical superintendent D G Kulkarni of the Sassoon hospital said, "Nair has undergone surgeries on both legs and will have to stay in the hospital for a few more days."

Nair, a final year B Com student of the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce had left for college around 8 am on his motorcycle on the fateful day. The bus hit him from behind near the S M Joshi school at Pulgate. After being hit, he was dragged for a distance. Bystanders took him to the Pune Cantonment hospital. Later, his parents shifted him to the Sassoon hospital.

For two years now, Nair had been preparing for the Combined Defence Service Examination and the Air Force Common Admission Test (CAT) - the first being an exam for an officer's post in the army and the other for a ground duty officer's post in the air force. But bus driver Mane's rampage on Wednesday have stayed his plans of appearing for both exams - the CDS exam is scheduled on February 12 and the Air Force CAT on February 26.

"I have wanted to join the defence services since my childhood," said Nair, a resident of Ghorpadi gaon. "Though no one from my family has ever been part of the defence services, I have always wanted to serve my country. This would have been my maiden attempt at both the exams, for which I have been preparing for the last two years. Given my condition now, where I cannot even move, I will not be able to write the exams."

As many as 13 patients with injuries were admitted to the state-run Sassoon hospital soon after the ill-fated incident.

"Ten of them sought discharge against medical advice. At present, we are treating three patients including Nair. The other two have sustained head and limb injuries, apart from body abrasions. All of them require treatment for some more days," said Kulkarni.

The condition of seven-year-old Rishi Khandelwal, who was critical earlier, has improved significantly. "Rishi is doing well. He was given liquid diet on Monday after we shifted him from the ICU to a regular ward," said neurosurgeon Prashant Khandelwal of the Jehangir hospital, where Rishi is being treated currently.

On Wednesday morning, Santosh Mane, a driver, had taken a bus from the Swargate bus depot and gone on a rampage for about an hour on city roads, killing eight people and damaging 37 vehicles.