Mumbai hotel fire claims life of soon-to-wed NRI Gujarati couple

livemint.com:

Three persons were killed in a fire in a Mumbai-based hotel on Sunday. Among them were NRIs 28-year-old Kishan Halai and his 25-year-old fiancee Rupal Vekaria, who were supposed to get married in Nairobi. The fire occurred on the third floor of the ground-plus-four-storey Galaxy Hotel in suburban Santacruz on Sunday afternoon.

Kishan, Rupal, her mother and sister were accommodated in the hotel by the airlines concerned after their flight was rescheduled, said a report by PTI citing Suresh Kara, sarpanch of Rampar village in Mandvi taluka of Gujarat's Kutch district. Families of both Kishan and Rupal hail from Rampar village. “Kishan Halai and his fiancée Rupal Vekaria were settled in Nairobi for several years," said the report quoting Kara.

“Kishan and Rupal were engaged and were planning to get married soon after reaching Nairobi, where they were residing for many years with their parents and siblings. Kishan, Rupal and their families came to India nearly a month back to attend the wedding of Kishan's younger brother in the village. The newly-married couple along with Kishan's parents had left for Kenya a week back." “They all reached Mumbai from Ahmedabad on Saturday to board a flight for Nairobi.

As the flight was rescheduled, the airline accommodated them in a nearby hotel in Santacruz where the fire erupted on Sunday," Kara was quoted as saying in the report. According to the PTI report citing officials, Rupal's mother Manjulaben (49), sister Alpa (19), and one Aslam Sheikh (48) were wounded in the incident. According to the sarpanch, the families of Kishan and Rupal remained connected to their roots despite settling abroad many years ago.