Mumbai: Charu Khandal, an animator who worked with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, passed away on Tuesday. She had been paralysed neck down after an accident in Oshiwara in 2012 while returning home in an autorickshaw from a party to celebrate the success of SRK-starrer Ra.One .
Ms. Khandal, who shifted to Jaipur two years ago, was hospitalised last week with high fever due to urinary tract infection. She was 32.
On March 25, 2012, she was travelling in an autorickshaw with her sister Ritu and friend Vikrant Goel, when a drunk driver rammed his car into their vehicle. While Ritu escaped with minor bruises, Ms. Khandal and Mr. Goel suffered spinal cord injuries. Mr. Goel, too, was paralysed waist down.
The driver of the Honda City, Manoj Netrapal, was arrested by the Oshiwara police for rash and negligent driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. He was later granted bail by the Metropolitan Magistrate on a surety of Rs. 10,000.
After hearing of the mishap, an acquaintance wrote on social media: “Can't believe this! So shocking! I met Charu Khandal after four years on Oct 30, 2016 in Jaipur and a few days later in AIIMS, Delhi. With my and others help, she was moving close to start using her talent for movie industry again. But just got the shocking news that she succumbed to a viral infection. She was on ventilator for last few days.”
Another friend who spoke to The Hindu said her suffering was unbearable.
“Yet she was trying to pull her life together. Recently, she had expressed her wish to look for work she could do, keeping her limitations in mind. I feel that, in a way, she has achieved liberation,” she said.
Her friends collectively expressed anger over the carelessness of the drunk driver who changed the fates of two families.
