Survivor of 1988 Indian Airlines crash in Ahmedabad dies alone

AHMEDABAD: An Ahmedabad textile businessman, one of the two persons who had survived the 1988 Indian Airlines plane crash in a paddy field near Noble Nagar Housing Society in Ahmedabad, was found dead at his home in Prahladnagar area of the city, said a police official on Sunday.
The deceased, Ashok Agarwal, 61, had survived the plane crash in which his wife Abha, then 22, their 11-month-old daughter Ruhi, and 125 other persons were killed. They were travelling in a Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight. The other person who survived the crash was Vinod Rewa Shankar Tripathi.
"Agarwal was found dead in his apartment in Binori Mable flats on Corporate Road in Prahladnagar on March 8," said inspector Sajid Baloch of Anandnagar police. "We sent his body to New Civil Hospital in Sola for postmortem. The report said that he died of cardiac arrest."
Baloch said that a sanitation worker of the apartment grew suspicious as a foul smell was coming out of Agarwal's flat. He informed the security personnel and other residents who broke the door and found the decomposed body of Agarwal, said Baloch.
On any probability of foul play, Baloch said that Agarwal lived alone and the cops did not find any hint of a scuffle. "Articles in the house were intact," he said . "It seems he died a natural death. We are still waiting for FSL report to determine if he was unwell or died suddenly due to heart failure."
An Indian Airlines plane had crashed two kilometres from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport in the city near Naroda on October 10, 1988, at around 6:53am . The tragedy killed 133 of the 135 people, including six crew members on board.
Agarwal could not recover from the tragedy. He took treatment for memory loss for about four years and had been to the US for a hip replacement surgery. Anandnagar police have registered a case of accidental death and began an investigation.