Mumbai: Two days after the Elphinstone Road railway station stampede, the Bunt community in Vikhroli organised a prayer meeting on Monday for those who lost their lives in the tragedy, including community members Sujata Alva (42) and Sumalata Shetty (43). A candle march was also held at the Elphinstone road station as a tribute to the victims who died on Friday.
Best friends Sujata and Sumalata were headed to Lower Parel to buy flowers for Dussehra when they were caught in the stampede. “I had told her she need not go all the way, that I would get her whatever she needed. However, she insisted on choosing the flowers. Such was her devotion to god, who took her away from us,” Sumalata's brother Suresh said.
The duo were to be joined by a third friend, Priya Shetty (36), a retired teacher, but she cancelled at the last minute to visit the local tailor. “They were the perfect homemakers and we were all excellent kabaddi players, which was the foundation of our friendship. We played together, shopped together and took important decisions only after consulting each other. Now I don’t know what to do without them,” she said.
The stampede has also left other families devastated. The parents of 24-year-old Hiloni Dedhia, a Chartered Accountant from Ulhasnagar, are trying to come to terms with losing their daughter. “My daughter was the most hardworking and charming girl anybody could come across. She was punctual and her insistence on getting to work in time cost her her life,” Nilesh Dedhia, Hiloni’s father, said. Hiloni had just become a Chartered Account and was working at Axis Bank’s Elphinstone Road branch.
One patient discharged
One patient injured in the Elphinstone bridge tragedy was discharged from the KEM Hospital on Monday while 19 others remained admitted. Doctors said that a few more patients will be discharged on Tuesday. “Those who are admitted are stable,” said Dr Avinash Supe, Dean, KEM Hospital. He said one patient underwent orthopaedic surgery and is recovering.
