Thane building collapse: 7-year-old’s b'day party turns into a nightmare

A birthday party for a seven-year-old girl quickly turned into a disaster when four of the five family members who were celebrating died after the four-storey building they resided in Thane collapsed on Tuesday.

A birthday party for a seven-year-old girl quickly turned into a disaster when four of the five family members who were celebrating died after the four-storey building they resided in Thane collapsed on Tuesday.

Birthday-party-for-seven-year-old-Aniya-quickly-turned-into-a-disaster-when-four-of-the-five-family-members-who-were-celebrating-died-after-the-four-storey-building-they-resided-in-Thane-collapsed--Photo-Praful-Gangurde

Amit Khot, 34, and his wife Bhakti, 32, had taken their family, including the latter’s father and brother, for a meal at a popular food outlet on Tuesday to celebrate their daughter Aniya’s birthday. Since it was late, Bhakti’s father and brother chose to stay back at her flat in Krishna Niwas building in Thane. The Khots resided on the third floor of the building. The flat belonged to Bhakti’s father Arun Sawant, 62, who had rented it to his daughter.

Civic commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal said, “Sawant resided at Lodha Complex in Thane and came to the Khot’s house with his son Amit, 40. Four of them, Aniya, Arun, his son Amit and Bhakti, died in the crash. Only the son-in-law survived.”

Aniya’s father Amit was inconsolable. “My whole family died in the crash. I have no one left,” he said. A civic official on the spot said, “Khot was stuck in the middle of the debris though his head was saved. He does not have too many injuries apart from a few bruises.”

Read: 12 killed after residential building collapses in Thane

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