An arson attack on a Kathmandu hotel, following protests against the Nepal government, resulted in the death of a 55-year-old woman from Ghaziabad
GHAZIABAD: Caught in an arson attack on their hotel after protests against the Nepal govt broke out in Kathmandu earlier this week, a 55-year-old woman from Ghaziabad died and her husband was injured as they tried to escape from their room. The couple’s family said Rajesh Devi Singh Gola fell while trying to climb down a makeshift rope of sheets and curtains from the fourth floor of the hotel, which was set on fire by a mob. It is the first Indian casualty to be reported from violence that erupted in the Himalayan nation this week. Ghaziabad ADM (F&M) Saurabh Bhatt said the administration sprung into action that after receiving information about the couple. “We are providing all possible help to the family to bring the body back. We have communicated with all the districts in UP at the Nepal border to show full support to the victims,” he said.Vishal told TOI on Thursday his parents – Rajesh Devi and Ramveer Singh Gola (55) – left for Kathmandu for a week-long vacation on Sept 7. They were staying at Hyatt Regency there.On Sept 9, he said, the couple went to visit Pashupatinath temple. “They were resting after returning from the temple, and around 11:30pm, protesters entered the hotel and set it on fire. My parents got trapped on the fourth floor. As the fire was spreading, they didn’t have a choice. My mother said to my father that they should leave the hotel, or they wouldn’t survive,” Vishal said. Cornered, Vishal said, Ramveer broke the window panes of the couple’s hotel room and threw a mattress to the ground. “He took curtains and bedsheets, and tied them together, to use them like a rope. My mother started climbing down first. Around the second floor, her grip loosened, possibly because she had an existing injury to her hand, and she fell. Her back and head hit the concrete ground. Later, my father came down using the curtains, but he was injured too,” Vishal said. Once outside the hotel, Ramveer saw his wife was bleeding from the head. Vishal said an army jeep arrived at the hotel and took his mother for treatment. “But they didn’t let my dad into the jeep, even though there was space and he pleaded with folded hands,” he said. With the help of a local, Ramveer reached a nearby army camp. He later got to know with the help of the Indian Embassy and locals that Rajesh Devi died at the TU Teaching Hospital. Videos circulating on X corroborate Vishal’s account. An online user on Sept 10 sought help from the Indian govt on his X account, saying in a post that he was stuck at Hyatt Regency with his family, along with at least five other Indian families. A video attached to the post shows a lobby and an outdoor space, purportedly that of Hyatt, ransacked. Others known to the family also spoke of the couple’s chaotic escape. Ravi Rana, a former employee, told TOI that Ramveer made “frantic calls” to acquaintances in Dehradun, where he runs a transport business, for help. Vishal said the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu and the Ghaziabad administration asked the family to wait for a flight to get his mother’s body back home. “Due to their weak response, I asked my father to hire a car and bring the body by road,” he said.
