[Watch] Mumbai Hoarding Incident: Bodies Of Couple Who Had Stopped For Petrol, Found Dead Under Debris

New Delhi: A retired Air Traffic Control (ATC) manager and his wife were among the 16 people who died after a 250-tonne hoarding fell on Monday during a massive dust storm that hit Mumbai. The bodies of retired ATC manager Manoj Chansoria, 60, and his wife Anita, 59, were found inside their car on Wednesday night after the 100-foot hoarding collapsed on top of a petrol pump in east Mumbai.  This took the death toll in the Mumbai hoarding collapse incident in Ghatkopar to 16, an NDRF official told news agency PTI.

The official said, “The bodies of a male and a female were retrieved from the car struck below the hoarding in Chheda Nagar area shortly after midnight.”

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Chansoria had retired as a general manager of Mumbai ATC in March, this year and the couple had moved to Jabalpur. They were in Mumbai for a few days to complete visa formalities for Ms Chansoria, police said, according to NDTV. After completing their work, the couple were heading back to Jabalpur and had stopped to refill petrol at the Ghatkopar pump when the storm hit.

When calls to them went unanswered, their son, who lives in the US, reached out to his friend in Mumbai for help. The friend lodged a missing complaint and the police tracked the couple’s mobile phones to determine their last known location was near the Ghatkopar petrol pump. The couple’s friends and relatives reached the site hoping they would be rescued from the debris, NDTV reported.

Meanwhile, a case of culpable homicide has been filed against Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of the advertising agency that erected the billboard. Notably, Bhinde has over 20 police cases filed against him, including one of rape.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the people who were killed in the tragedy and has also said that the government will bear the cost of treatment for those who were injured.