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Gold medallist chemical engineer, living on Mumbai streets, passes away

Updated on: 20 January,2017 09:07 AM IST  | 
Aparna Shukla |

A little over a month after Mumbai found Arun Paurana, living on the streets and attempted to rehabilitate him, he breathed his last on Wednesday, outside his old haunt in Borivli, all alone

Gold medallist chemical engineer, living on Mumbai streets, passes away

Arun Paurana died alone and was found by a night patrol team
Arun Paurana died alone and was found by a night patrol team


Mr Paurana, we hardly knew ye. A little over a month after the city found the gold medallist chemical engineer, Arun Paurana, living on the streets and attempted to rehabilitate him, he breathed his last in the early hours of Wednesday, outside Indraprastha, his old haunt in Borivli, all alone.


Even as he had been complaining about difficulty in breathing and his inability to eat to those who would listen, he was found lying dead by police inspector Raju Patil at around 1 am outside his old building and taken to the hospital.


Also Read: Chemical engineer ditched by family lives life of tramp in Mumbai

“Since I have been overlooking his case for a while, I felt kind of bad, but we tried our best. We immediately took him to Shatabdi Hospital, where he was declared dead,” said Patil. In a sad footnote, his body lies there unclaimed, as his wife has refused to take the body for the final rites, according to old friend Chandrakant Mirani.

Back on the streets
Just a month ago, soon after an anonymous CEO bought him a flat, Paurana tried to escape for Vapi yet again. “I got a call from him saying he was in Vapi, but none of his friends there came forward to help him and he ended up back on the streets of Mumbai. I will never really understand what he was after,” said Mirani.

“He would keep calling out to people to talk to him and listen to his stories. But how long could we stay with him, said a woman from the Samta Nagar society in Kandivli East, where he was residing till a month ago. A more recent acquaintance would be Rajiv Gangania, who saw Paurana four days ago near the Mangal Kunj Apartment in Borivli and tried to help him. “He looked extremely ill. On humanitarian grounds, we all took him to Shanti Dham, an ashram in Gorai, but they didn’t take him in, saying he keeps leaving. They were pretty rude to me and asked me to keep him at my home if I was so concerned. Pauranaji, meanwhile, kept requesting the officers to leave him at Indraprastha where he usually sits, so he went back there,” said Gangania.

Read Story: Chemical engineer forced to live like tramp on Mumbai streets gets a home

The Ashram, however, refutes the allegation and has said, “Around four months ago, when he came to the ashram, he appeared to be dying, but insisted on leaving as soon as he became fit. Later, he said in a letter that he doesn’t want to be here, so how can we keep him forcefully?”

Kin called
Meanwhile, relatives, who helped identify the body, were called on the spot too. Nephew Anand Paurana said, “It’s not a good time to say anything. He was not keeping well from a while and bad health is the only cause of death. What happened is unfortunate.” Another nephew, Bhaskar Tanna, who also rushed to Borivli, said, “In spite of whatever happened, he was a good man, and we will miss him.”

Post-mortem conclusion
Paurana’s body, whose death has been registered under section 174 of the CrPC was sent for autopsy and has now been kept at Bhagwati Postmortem Centre mortuary. The forensic surgeon concluded that he died due to “heart disease, with pulmonary cox and hypertension” i.e it was a natural death. The body will be kept in the mortuary for another 15 days, after which the police can dispose it if it remains unclaimed.

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