HYDERABAD: Death called too early for Chandan Jethi and Mithali Mahapatra, both 29 and newly-wed when the fire broke at Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel on Monday night. The couple from Cuttack in Odisha were in the city as Mithali was undergoing some medical training. She was a dermatologist. The night they spent at the ill-fated hotel in Secunderabad gutted their lives and dreams. While Mithali was first shifted to Yashoda Hospital where she was declared brought dead, Chandan’s body was moved straight to Gandhi Hospital.
An all-pervading sense of gloom prevailed at the Gandhi Hospital on Tuesday when shell-shocked relatives of victims came to take the bodies of their loved ones home. Fate was most unkind to Veerender Kumar Devakar, a 50-year-old businessman from Delhi, who had been staying at the hotel for 20 days in connection with some property deals. “He was to return home on Sunday but at the last minute extended his stay by one more day. This led to him dying in the hotel fire. Now, we have lost him forever,” his daughter Preeti says sobbing telling TNIE how her mother collapsed in shock on hearing the news.
The relatives of two siblings from Delhi, Rajeev Malik (56) and Sandeep Malik (61), were yet to arrive. The brothers, who were both businessmen and lived together in Delhi, were staying in the hotel for some work connected to their business.
Survivor recalls harrowing time in hotel
Equitas Bank employee Alladi Harish, 33, who hailed from Vijayawada was in Secunderabad for a company induction programme. Harish’s wife Kavya told Express that Harish was initially supposed to stay at Hotel Minerva Grand but he was moved to Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel at the last minute as there was no vacancy in Minerva Grand. The couple have two children.
Harish’s younger child, a boy, was born only two weeks ago. Kavya shivers as she recounts how a friend went to Gandhi Hospital and sent a photo of Harish’s body at 3 am on Tuesday. “My son, Harish, last spoke to us at around 9 pm on Monday and asked us if we had dinner,” recalls a teary-eyed Koteshwara Rao. Little did he know that it would be their last ever conversation.
One of the survivors Debashish Gupta, 36, who hails from Kolkata says he waited for an hour in his room on the third floor to be rescued. He remembers seeing four-five bodies lying on the floor while crossing the corridor of the third floor.
He was rescued by a policeman who took him to the fifth floor of the hotel to climb a ladder and cross over to the next building. He was one among the three persons who were rushed to Apollo Hospitals after the incident. The fire started around 9.35 pm when lights in the hotel started blinking, a survivor recalls. Within minutes, the hotel’s power was snapped.
POWER SNAPPED IN MINUTES
The fire started around 9.35 pm when lights in the hotel started blinking, a survivor recalls. Within minutes, the hotel’s power was snapped. A survivor was rescued by a policeman who took him to the fifth floor of the hotel to climb a ladder and cross over to the next building. He was one among the three persons who were rushed to Apollo Hospitals.