Atulya Mafatlal passes away

Businessman Atulya Mafatlal, 60, died in his sleep early on Wednesday morning at Mafatlal House, Altamount Road

Mumbai:

Narrating the sequence of events, a friend said Atulya had woken up at around 4 am feeling uneasy but eventually went back to sleep (HT File)

Businessman Atulya Mafatlal, 60, died in his sleep early on Wednesday morning at Mafatlal House, Altamount Road.

Narrating the sequence of events, a friend said Atulya had woken up at around 4 am feeling uneasy but eventually went back to sleep. When a house staff went to check on him at 6 am, he did not wake up.

Atulya’s son, Varun, who lives in the same bungalow, was informed immediately and the family doctor was summoned. The family shifted him to Breach Candy Hospital, where doctors said he was brought dead.

His body was sent for autopsy to JJ Hospital where the postmortem was conducted. Senior police inspector of Gamdevi police station, Dattaram Girap, said it was a natural death from coronary artery disease. The body was handed over to the relatives around 2.30pm.

Since he was in good health, and the death was unexpected, the family decided to do the postmortem to rule out any foulplay.

The family will perform his last rites at Worli crematorium on Thursday afternoon.

Nearly a decade ago, the Mafatlals created headlines when his then wife, socialite Sheetal Mafatlal, lodged a case of harassment against the family’s matriarch 78-year-old Madhuri. In her complaint, Sheetal had alleged that Madhuri, Atulya, his brother Ajay, Madhuri’s daughters Kunti Shah and Gayatri Jhaveri, and Atulya’s children Varun and Marushka, from his previous marriage, had harassed her mentally and physically at her matrimonial home.

Atulya’s brother Ajay, with whom he had a long legal battle regarding inheritance rights, passed away in 2015.

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