The grief-stricken family of Awinash Kumar Dev, who was burnt to death in a fire at the Maruti Suzuki car plant in Manesar, organised a condolence meeting at his house in Malviya Nagar in New Delhi on Friday which was attended by a large number of his relatives, friends and acquaintances.
There was a gloomy silence both outside and inside Dev’s house two days after the tragedy. Most of those who visited the house were his wife Suparna’s colleagues. According to the neighbours, Shibu Soren, the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, also visited the family to share the grief.
Dev, whose last rites were performed at Nigambodh Ghat here on Thursday, was from Ranchi and is survived by his wife and son Abhyudit. Suparna works as a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Defence, while 16-year-old Abhyudit is in Class XI.
“Even for someone like Suparna, who always had a positive attitude towards life, this is a major loss,” said Babita Chatwal, one of Suparna’s colleagues, who added that the couple’s son was a meritorious student.
Neighbours said they were still coming to terms with the tragedy. “I was completely shocked when I came to know about the incident from the media. Dev was a very soft-spoken person. Though he had been living here for a while, I had very few interactions with him as his schedule was such that he used to leave early and come late at night,” said a neighbour.
Subhash Chugh, another neighbour, recalled how Dev used to leave his house dutifully at 7-30 a.m. every morning.
The Human Resources manager was associated with Maruti for a little over two years. He held a Masters in Business Administration from Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi.
