Latest Updates
Body of Teen Killed at Tea Stall Handed Over Six Days after Ahmedabad Plane Crash; Family Pleads for Support
Six days after the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad, the body of 14-year-old Akash Patni was finally released to his grieving family. His remains were handed over to his family early on Tuesday at the Chamunda cremation ground. Mourners gathered to pay their respects, laying a bed of roses over the boy’s casket. A large poster bearing Akash’s smiling face stood near the funeral pyre, a poignant reminder of a life cut short.
Akash had been asleep near his mother’s tea stall when the London-bound Dreamliner suddenly plummeted into the BJ Medical College campus on the morning of 12 June. The crash left widespread devastation, with Akash among the many innocent lives lost on the ground.
Akash’s father, Suresh Patni, who works as an autorickshaw driver, said they had been told to collect their son’s body late Monday night. However, the family chose to wait until dawn to perform the final rites in accordance with their beliefs. “We wanted to give him a proper farewell at first light,” said Suresh. “That was the least we could do for him.”
His mother, Sita Ben Patni, was working at the tea stall when the crash occurred. She survived with severe injuries and is currently recovering in Civil Hospital after undergoing surgery for burns that affected 50 percent of her body.
The small tea stall was the family’s primary source of income, supported by Suresh’s modest earnings as a rickshaw driver. With the stall now destroyed and medical bills mounting, the family’s future remains uncertain.
Despite the scale of the tragedy, the Patnis say they have not received any communication or assurance of compensation from the authorities. “We haven’t heard anything from anyone,” said Suresh. “Why should only passengers receive support? My son died just trying to sleep beside his mother’s tea stall. We are suffering too,” he added. The Patni family is now pleading with officials to extend the same level of support promised to passengers' families to those on the ground who also bore the brunt of the disaster.
