Ghatkopar hoarding crash: How a son’s call from the US led to his trapped parents’ location

On Thursday, Bhavesh Prabhudas Bhinde, 51, the owner of the hoarding that crashed, was arrested by the Crime Branch from Udaipur. The Ghatkopar hoarding, situated beside a petrol pump in Pant Nagar on Eastern Express Highway, measured 120×120 feet as against the permitted size of 40×40 feet. Bhinde, the director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, was booked in a rape case by Mumbai Police earlier this year.

The couple’s last rites were held at a crematorium in Sahar on Thursday. The couple was related to actor Kartik Aaryan. (Express Photo)

According to his colleagues, the couple was in Mumbai for paperwork related to their visa so they could visit their son, Yash, who lives in the United States. Officials said the couple’s son had not been able to reach them since Monday afternoon. “Their son had been trying to contact them since 5 pm on May 13. Unable to reach Manoj and with Anita not answering her phone, he contacted his father’s colleagues for help,” a former colleague told The Indian Express.

Chansoria had been stationed in Mumbai for nearly a year before his retirement, the colleague said, adding that some of them went to the Marol guest house where the couple had been staying to check on them but in vain.

Following a request by their son, Chansoria’s former colleagues sought assistance from the Mumbai Police to locate the couple. With help of mobile network data, the police traced their last location to Ghatkopar, adjacent to the Eastern Express Highway.

As soon as they learnt about their last location, colleagues and friends reached the crash site in Ghatkopar. After hours of waiting, on Wednesday afternoon, their bodies were located inside their car, which was trapped beneath the girder.

“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 said, adding that Chansoria, who retired on March 31, is related to actor Kartik Aaryan.

Chansoria joined the Airports Authority of India as a senior manager in 1996. During the course of his service, he worked as airport director in Indore and Amritsar, before being transferred to New Delhi as general manager. In April 2023, he came to Mumbai as general manager, air traffic management.

While 14 bodies were recovered in less than 24 hours of the crash, a senior Mumbai Fire Brigade official present at the site said the couple’s remains could only be recovered from the rubble around midnight on Wednesday. (Express Photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

While 14 bodies were recovered in less than 24 hours of the crash, a senior Mumbai Fire Brigade official present at the site said the couple’s remains could only be recovered from the rubble around midnight on Wednesday. The official told The Indian Express that the recovery of their bodies “took much longer” due to one of the five huge girders of the 120-foot hoarding pinning their car down.

“Their car was found in the middle of the crash site. It was almost flattened due to the weight and pressure of the girder. Each metal girder was extremely huge and heavy. Though petrol supply to the station was shut off immediately after the incident on Monday to prevent potential fires, we could not use gas cutters for the first two days due to petrol vapours and fumes in the vicinity. We received clearance to use gas cutters late on Tuesday. Even then, we had to exercise extreme caution, including having multiple fire hose lines for water supply to prevent any fire outbreaks,” a Fire official said.

When the girder was finally cut, he said, rescue agencies pulled the car from beneath using a backhoe excavator. “We had to cut the car doors and then the roof to extract their bodies,” the officer said, adding that their remains were “almost decomposed” at the time of their recovery. Medical officials at Rajawadi Hospital, where the bodies were taken immediately after the extraction, confirmed that the bodies were in a decomposed state.

Hours after the Chansorias were found, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Bhushan Gagrani visited the site on Thursday morning. Announcing that search and rescue operations were being called off at 10.30 am, he told journalists, “We are now working to remove the rubble. That work is expected to take a while since there is substantial debris at the spot.”

Several labourers and officials present at the site attributed the slow pace of rescue work to petrol, diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) storage tanks being buried in the debris. Due to the presence of these fuels, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other agencies engaged in rescue operations could not use gas cutters to speed up their work.

“This was an active petrol pump where fuel was stored, so we had to carry out the rescue operation very carefully. Equipment like gas cutters couldn’t be used to remove the structure faster as a precautionary measure. These factors contributed to the delay in completion of rescue operations,” Gagrani said.