Kin mourn pilgrims who never returned

Silent murmurs marked the scene at the Khar residence of the Sachdev family on Tuesday, as relatives offered prayers for child actor Taruni Sachdev, 13, and her mother, Geeta, 48, who died in Monday's Nepal plane crash.

Silent murmurs marked the scene at the Khar residence of the Sachdev family on Tuesday, as relatives offered prayers for child actor Taruni Sachdev, 13, and her mother, Geeta, 48, who died in Monday's Nepal plane crash.

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Taruni's father, Harish, reached Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital on Tuesday to identify and claim the bodies.

The Arora household in Mumbai Central was locked after the three-member family comprising parents Kamal, 53, and Menaka, 50, and their son Shiv, 19, died in the crash.

"The couple chanted Krishna's name throughout the day and were a very close knit family. Their son, who was still in college, had accompanied his parents during their visit to trek near the Jomsom airport," said a family friend.

On Tuesday morning, Menaka's brothers Yashpal and Bunty Mehra, accompanied by Kamal's brother Shashi, reached Nepal to bring back the bodies to Mumbai to perform the final rites.

Like the Sachdev and Arora family, Krishna Chaitanya, a bramhachari from the ISKCON temple quarters, and brothers Murli and Gagan Handa, were also on the pilgrimage to the Muktinath temple, located 200km northwest of Kathmandu.

"We will support Chaitanya's family's decision to perform the last rites either in Mumbai or back in their hometown in Hyderabad," said an official from ISKCON.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, Radhakund Das and Gaur Gopal Das, two priests from the temple, left for Nepal to take note of the situation.

"Since there were no flight tickets available on Monday night, the temple priests could leave only on Tuesday morning," added the official.