Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Sisters Lose Father Days After Mother’s Death

Two days after the horrific plane crash in Ahmedabad, heartbreaking stories of the victims are beginning to surface.

Among the most tragic is that of two young sisters, aged 8 and 4, who have been orphaned in just 18 days.

The siblings were still coming to terms with the loss of their mother, Bharti, who died of cancer on May 26, when tragedy struck again. Their father, Arjun Patoliya, was killed in the crash.

Arjun had travelled to Ahmedabad to fulfil Bharti’s final wish: that her ashes be immersed in the Narmada River at Nilkanthdham in Poicha, their ancestral village in Gujarat. He was on his way back to London, returning to his daughters, when fate delivered another cruel blow.

Arjun’s mother lives in Surat, while his daughters are now in the care of his younger brother Gopal in London.

The family shared that Bharti’s final rites had been performed just last Sunday. “We were only beginning to process her loss when this second tragedy struck,” they said.

Arjun’s cousin Sanjay recalled, “My sister-in-law had wished for her last rites to be performed in India. We never imagined we’d be performing Arjun’s as well, just days later.”

To help identify his remains, Arjun’s mother provided a DNA sample, allowing the body to be brought to their village of Vadiya for his final rites.

Arjun lost his father at a very young age in 1990 and was raised by his mother, who sold cutlery and household items to support the family. He studied up to class 12 at the Swaminarayan Gurukul in Surat before moving to the UK at age 20. For the past 17 years, he had been living in London, where he ran a furniture business.

He met Bharti there—an accountant originally from Gujarat’s Kutch district—and together they built a life in the UK.