Delhi student succumbs to Pune blast injuries, toll 11

PUNE/NEW DELHI - Aditya Jaiprakash Mehta, a student injured in Saturday’s terror attack in Pune, succumbed to his injuries early Wednesday, taking the toll to 11, police said. His shocked friends and neighbours back in New Delhi remembered him as a talented student and a good football player.

According to an official of the Pune police Control Room, Mehta, 24, was a fourth year student of Bharatiya Vidyapeeth, an engineering college in Pune.

Mehta died around 4 a.m. Wednesday at Pune’s Jehangir Hospital, the official said.

His relatives from New Delhi had already arrived in Pune and the formalities to hand over the body were being completed, he said.

With this, the toll in the blast at Pune’s German Bakery went up to 11. Nine people died the same evening; Abhishek Saxena, a student of D.Y. Patil College - succumbed to his injuries Tuesday.

Mehta’s neighbours in northwest Delhi neighbourhood Rohini remembered him as a very talented boy.

We knew him very well and he has grown in front of our eyes. I remember he used to play with other boys whenever he was here. He was a very talented boy and used to remain happy, O.P. Sharma, chairman of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) Sector-8 Rohini, told IANS.

The victim’s parents - J.P. Mehta and Meera Mehta - and his elder sister Misha left for Pune hours after the blast. His father is a businessman in central Delhi.

The home is locked right now. His parents and sister have gone to Pune to bring back the body. I just talked to them. They are catching a flight from Pune at 7 p.m. and will reach home tonight. The cremation is expected to take place tomorrow (Thursday), Sharma added.

Ashok Nangyia, one of Aditya’s schoolmates, said: We were in school together. He was very talented. He was a good football player too.

Aditya completed his schooling from Bal Bharati School in Rohini. He was studying engineering in electronics and communication and was preparing for GRE to go abroad for further studies.

He suffered 55-60 percent burn injuries and both his legs were badly affected.

The well-known German Bakery in the fashionable Koregaon Park area of Pune was packed on the eve of Valentine’s Day when the bomb went off.

At least 37 more victims are still undergoing treatment in various Pune hospitals. The bomb in backpacks — a mixture of RDX and ammonium nitrate — injured 57 people in all.