The hoarding collapse in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar area on Monday claimed the lives of sixteen people, including the relatives of actor Kartik Aaryan, Manoj and Anita Chansoria. Their mortal remains were found two days later on Wednesday, in a ‘nearly decayed’ state. The couple was in Mumbai to obtain a visa for the United States, where their son Yash lives. Their bodies were found after their son noticed their phones were out of reach and alerted local friends and police.
Manoj Chansoria, 60, a retired Air Traffic Control manager, and his wife Anita, 59, were in their car when the huge hoarding in Ghatkopar collapsed onto a petrol pump. The duo was one of 90 people trapped under an illegal hoarding that fell on a petrol pump in Mumbai during severe dust storms.
“As soon as he realised that his parents were missing on Monday, their son boarded a flight from the United States. Their final rites were conducted at a crematorium in Sahar on Thursday,” a family friend of the deceased victims told IE.
The couple’s last rites were held in Mumbai. Actor Kartik Aaryan also attended the last rites of the couple. Manoj Chansoria, who retired in March of this year, was posted in Mumbai for a year. Manoj’s colleagues, along with Mumbai Police, could trace down their phone and find out that their last known location was in Ghatkopar, near the Eastern Express Highway.
On the evening of 13th May, when dust storms and unseasoned rains hit the city, an illegal hoarding situated on property owned by the Government Railway Police (GRP) slammed into a gas station in the Chheda Nagar neighbourhood causing death and destruction in the surrounding vicinity. Later, a case was filed against Bhavesh Prabhudas Bhinde for culpable homicide not amounting to murder after the billboard that his company Ego Media erected toppled during the storm in Ghatkopar leaving 16 dead and 74 injured. On Thursday, Bhinde was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch from Udaipur.
