Former Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, who died in a road accident, was cremated in Mumbai on Tuesday, 6 September. His last rites were performed as per Hindu customs in an electric crematorium at Worli in central Mumbai.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, Anil Ambani, and Akash Ambani were also present at the funeral.
Ratan Tata's stepmother Simone Tata, 92, was also present. Using a wheelchair, she arrived at the crematorium in a special van. Former TCS head S Ramadorai came for the cremation too. Madhu Kannan, one of the key executives handpicked by Mistry during his chairmanship of Tata Sons, was seen at the funeral as well.
However, no senior official from the Tata Group – with whom Mistry fought a bitter legal battle till the end – was seen at the funeral.
Since the opening of the crematorium in Worli in 2015, Mumbai's Parsis are choosing to cremate their deceased instead of going along with the Towers of Silence tradition, where bodies of the deceased are left to be consumed by vultures.
Mistry and his co-passenger Jahangir Pandole died in a road accident in Palghar near Mumbai on Sunday.
What Has Police Said So Far?
A police official said that over-speeding and an “error of judgement” by the driver caused the accident on the bridge over the Surya river, while Mistry was returning to Mumbai from Ahmedabad.
The car was being driven by Mumbai-based gynaecologist, Dr Anahita Pandole, 55. She and her husband, Darius Pandole, 60, were seriously injured in the accident. Mistry and Jahangir Pandole were in the backseats.
Another police officer revealed that the person behind the wheel had covered a distance of 20 km in just nine minutes, meaning the luxury car was being driven at a speed of 180-190 km per hour.
On Tuesday, Sanjay Mohite, Inspector General of Police, Konkan range, said that the police will check the car's brake fluid level.
Low brake fluid causes air to fill the gaps in the brake line, leading to soft brakes. Spongy brake pedals can be dangerous, the official was reported as saying by MoneyControl.
"We will check the parameters from Mercedes-Benz regarding the brake condition. A high-end vehicle can provide details such as tyre pressure, level of brake fluid, etc. By looking at the vehicle, it looks like it must have been in high speed," Mohite told reporters.
Meanwhile, a team from Mercedes-Benz visited the accident spot around 100 km from Mumbai on Tuesday, 6 September, a police official said. The car in which Mistry was travelling was manufactured by the company.
(With inputs from PTI and MoneyControl.)
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