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Mistry dies in road crash near Mumbai
Industry leader and former chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus Mistry, died in a car accident on Sunday afternoon when he was on his way back to Mumbai from the Parsi pilgrim town of Udvada
Industry leader and former chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus Mistry, died in a car accident on Sunday afternoon when he was on his way back to Mumbai from the Parsi pilgrim town of Udvada. He was 54.
Mistry was accompanied by three others: Mumbai gynecologist Dr Anahita Pandole, her husband Darius Pandole, who is MD and CEO of JM Financial Private Equity, and Darius Pandole’s brother, Jehangir Pandole, a director at the London office of KPMG Global Strategy who also died in the accident.
The four of them had gone to the Iranshah Atash Behram at Udvada for a private religious function, confirmed the high priest of Udvada, Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor. At the time of the accident, Dr Anahita Pandole was behind the wheel of the Mercedes GLC 220D registered in the name of JM Financial Limited. Her husband Darius was sitting next to her while Cyrus Mistry and her brother-in-law Jehangir Pandole were at the back.
It was not clear what caused the accident but the police account suggested that around 3.30pm on Sunday, as the grey Mercedes was crossing Charoti in Palghar on the outskirts of Mumbai, the driver lost control and the car swerved left and crashed into a concrete barricading wall. The impact of the crash damaged the front of the car. Cyrus Mistry and Jehangir Pandole, both of whom were sitting at the back, died on the spot.
Their bodies were taken to the nearby Kasa hospital and later to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital for the postmortem examination and other formalities. Sanjay Bobhade, civil surgeon at the Palghar hospital, said both men died of head injuries and severe internal bleeding. Anahita and Darius Pandole were shifted to Rainbow Hospital at Vapi, 57km from the accident spot. Anahita sustained a pelvic fracture and serious chest injuries, said doctors in Mumbai who are in touch with the Vapi hospital, while Darius sustained multiple rib fractures and a fractured jaw. Both were said to be stable and will be air-lifted to a Mumbai hospital on Monday morning.
As word of Mistry’s sudden death spread, tributes to his business acumen, his leadership skills and his gentle nature, flooded in. From Prime Minister Modi to Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and business leaders Gautam Adani to Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekharan — eminent personalities condoled the death.
Mistry, who lost his father Pallonji Mistry in June this year, maintained a low profile after he stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons. He and the Pandoles were family friends and all of them were alumni of Mumbai’s Cathedral and John Connon School.
“Cyrus Mistry’s passing is a shocking tragedy and an irreparable loss for the nation as well as the community,” said Anahita Subedar, editor, Parsi Times.
“As a miniscule and close-knit community, we deeply feel the loss of Cyrus, one of our contemporary greats.”
While the Mistry family has been one of Mumbai’s leading Parsi families — Cyrus’s father Pallonji Mistry built some of post-Independence Mumbai’s best-known buildings such as the RBI, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the Homi Bhabha Auditorium, among others, Darius and Jehangir Pandole’s family owned Dukes, the popular beverage company from Mumbai that was sold to PepsiCo.
Dr Anahita Pandole is one of Mumbai’s best-known gynecologists and a leading fertility expert who has been closely involved with the Jiyo Parsi initiative to improve the birth rate of the miniscule community. While Jehangir Pandole was single, Cyrus Mistry is survived by his wife Rohiqa Chagla, granddaughter of the renowned jurist MC Chagla, and their two sons Firoz and Zahan.
