Mumbai’s Janmashtami Dahi Handi festivities on Saturday brought both joy and tragedy, with two deaths and 95 injuries reported across the city. According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data, 278 people required medical attention across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), of whom 29 were admitted to civic hospitals. 

One of the deceased, Jagmohan Shivkiran Chaudhari, 32, fell from a G+1 structure while tying a rope from the first floor of a chawl in Maharashtra Nagar, Mankhurd. He fell inside the house and was rushed to Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi by relatives, but was declared “brought dead.” His body was later sent to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar for post-mortem.

Chaudhari, a skilled labourer and sole breadwinner for his family with two young children, has left his family devastated. His brother-in-law told mid-day, “This was most sudden. We were also asked to pay Rs 2100 for transporting his body barely 10 km home. The ambulance, plastered with political party stickers, refused to take the body unless we agreed to the charges.”