Hoarding collapse incident: Kartik Aaryan's relative among deceased in Mumbai's Ghatkopar

• Image Credit: Internet

• May 17, 2024 | Pinaki Goswami

The bodies of Manoj Chansoria, the Indore Airport director, and his wife Anita were recovered from their car three days after the incident...

Digital Desk: In a shocking development in Mumbai's Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident, two among the 16 deceased have been identified as the relatives of Kartik Aaryan. India TV's Atul Singh reported that Aaryan's maternal uncle and aunt, Manoj Chansoria and Anita Chansoria, were among the deceased. The actor attended their last rites on May 16.

The bodies of Manoj Chansoria, the Indore Airport director, and his wife Anita were recovered from their car three days after the incident. The couple resided in Jabalpur's Civil Lines area near Mariam Chowk. They had stopped at a petrol pump in Pant Nagar on the Eastern Express Highway around 4:30 pm on May 13, intending to refuel their car with the license plate HR 26 EL 9373, before returning to Jabalpur from Mumbai via Indore.

Manoj Chansoria had retired as a general manager at Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) in March and had recently relocated to Jabalpur. Relatives stated that the couple had come to Mumbai for personal reasons and were on their way back when they lost contact. The location of Chansoria's mobile phone indicated that they were at the petrol pump at the time of the collapse. It is believed that they were refueling when the hoarding, weakened by gusty winds and rain, came crashing down.

Civic officials have attributed the disaster to the weak foundation of the pillar supporting the giant hoarding. The structure, which was erected on land owned by the Government Railway Police (GRP), collapsed onto the petrol pump in Chheda Nagar during a bout of unseasonal rain and dust storms. The hoarding had been illegally installed, which compounded the severity of the incident.