Skipped breakfast, couldn’t skip his fate

The body of Pawan Bansal (62), one of the victims of the Delhi high court blast, was brought to his house in Gurgaon Sector 56 on Thursday afternoon.

The body of Pawan Bansal (62), one of the victims of the Delhi high court blast, was brought to his house in Gurgaon Sector 56 on Thursday afternoon.

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Relatives feel that Bansal, a financial consultant with a private company, could have escaped the blast had he not missed his breakfast and got late in reaching the court for the company work.

"He was in a hurry to reach the court and did not have his breakfast and left the home early in the morning. Had he eaten his breakfast he certainly would have got late and escaped the blast. It was his destiny which took him there," said one of his relatives.

His daughter Rachna Gupta said her father was a retired officer from State Bank of Patiala and had recently joined a private company as a financial consultant.

"The Bansal family had shifted from Dwarka in Delhi to Gurgaon about six months ago. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. The daughter is married, while his son got engaged last month and is scheduled to get married in October this year. His son Manu Bansal is a chartered accountant," said RK Sharma, a local resident.

"He was a nice man with a friendly nature. Within six months he made several friends here in the society. We were shocked to hear about his unfortunate departure. We got to know about the incident at 10pm. The entire society is in shock after hearing the news about his death,” said PS Bhalla, secretary of Vidya Enclave, Gurgaon, and Pawan Bansal's friend.

The family received the body from the hospital authority at noon. An ambulance reached their house at 1.30pm.

Family members, friends and other known people had assembled at their residence for the last rites, which were performed at a local cremation ground at 2.30pm. Dozens of people attended his last rites.