The Hindu : National : Diamond trader dies in freak accident

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Wednesday, Oct 08, 2008
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National

Diamond trader dies in freak accident

Ananth Krishnan

SHANGHAI: For Harshit Shah, a 24-year-old diamond trader from Mumbai, what was a regular Sunday evening shopping trip with his wife in Shanghai tragically ended his life.

Shah was shopping in a Marks & Spencer store here along with his wife and a friend when he lost his balance while leaning on an escalator and fell down four floors to his death.

Shah worked in Shanghai as the chief representative of a Mumbai-based jewellery company at the Shanghai Diamond Exchange.

He moved to the city from Mumbai two years ago along with his wife, and his death has shocked the city’s small but closely-knit Gujarati Jain community.

Shah’s wife, who was standing beside him when he tragically fell, had decided to not press any charges on Marks & Spencer after watching the closed circuit security tapes provided by the store, according to Ketan Shah, a friend of Harshit’s.

“I watched the Closed Circuit Television footage myself and there is no doubt it was a freak accident,” Ketan said. “Harshit tried to rest his hand on the escalator and lost his balance when the hand rail dragged him down, and he fell over.”

Ketan said Harshit Shah was an active member of the Gujarati Jain community. Shah will be cremated here on Wednesday.

His family arrived in the city from Mumbai on Tuesday.

For Marks & Spencer, Shah’s death brings unwelcome attention: they opened their first Shanghai outlet only on Thursday.

The store is the British retailer’s largest in Asia, and is located on the city’s high-end shopping district on Nanjing Road.

A Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau official told state media on Monday that there was a “dangerous two-metre gap between two adjacent escalators” in the store, and authorities were still investigating the accident.

But Zhang Zhenyi, the brand manager of the Shanghai store, told The Hindu on Tuesday that local police authorities had cleared the retailer of any responsibility.

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