On May 31, when doctors at Max Hospital in Saket, Delhi, told chartered accountant Vivek Aggarwal that his father’s condition was critical and the family should prepare for the worst, 45-year-old Vivek immediately called his elder daughter Jivisha in Bengaluru.
The head of the family, Radhey Shyam (77), was suffering from organ failure, his oxygen level was falling and doctors had put him on BiPAP support. The father’s message to his daughter was simple: “Come home.”
20-year-old Jivisha, who had started her first year at PES University in Bengaluru, boarded the first available flight and reached Delhi around 4 pm on June 2. The family wanted to stay together. Three days later, Vivek, his wife Tarjani, daughters Jivesha and Varya, his mother Prem Lata and three relatives from Rajasthan died in a devastating fire at Flourish Stays, a B&B where they had shifted to live closer to the hospital.
Six days after the fire, Radhe Shyam himself died in the ICU, unaware that his entire world had already disappeared.
There are two quintessential Indian stories behind this tragedy. The first is a family whose journey mirrors the journey of countless middle-class families across India – families who spent decades building homes, educating children, caring for aging parents, and dreaming of a better future. And the second is that relative wealth is no insurance against the unpredictability and low value of life in India, where security is often given less importance.
This is the first story.
From Ajmer to Delhi and beyond
Radhe Shyam and his wife Prem Lata left Ajmer, Rajasthan with their newborn son Vivek in 1978 and moved to Delhi. The young family settled on the first floor of the four-storey ancestral building in Kotla Mubarakpur in south Delhi, where many of the cousins had grown up together.
Radhe Shyam joined the family’s automobile spare parts business, which had been running since 1974. Over time, he ventured into real estate construction and interior decoration, and established himself in business in 1995 before retiring about a decade ago.
Vivek’s cousin Mahendra Agarwal, who now lives in Noida, said, “Uncle has worked very hard all his life. Once Vivek started doing well professionally, he gradually stepped back and left all the decisions to him.”
Family members describe Vivek as a brilliant student. He studied at Manav Sthali School in Delhi, graduating from the school in 1996 and then enrolled for a commerce degree while preparing for the CA exam. According to another cousin, Deepak Aggarwal, Vivek became one of the youngest CAs from the Delhi region in 1999. His age at that time would have been 21 years. “He was among the top five in Delhi and top 30 in the country.”
His professional career began abroad. Vivek’s nephew Mrinal Aggarwal said that his first job was in a company based in Oman. He lived abroad for about five years. “He went to Singapore and later Nigeria before returning to India in 2004.”
Back home, Vivek worked in senior positions in several leading companies. He worked with AIRTL between 2004 and 2006, joined Genpact where he worked till 2012, moved to HCL, later worked with Info Edge and ultimately joined InsuranceDekho as Chief Financial Officer in August 2024. A few weeks before his death, he traveled to Hong Kong to receive an award from his company.
a family move
Vivek had an arranged marriage with Tarjani in 2005. Family members said that the couple complemented each other perfectly. Mahendra said, “Vivek was very clear about his decisions and goals, while Tarjani was extremely creative. She loved to organize things and took responsibility for every family function.”
According to family members, Tarjani had recently launched her event management company. Mahendra said, “She played the role of an ideal wife and daughter-in-law. She brought up both her daughters with strong family values.” The couple enjoyed a large social circle and frequently hosted relatives and friends.
The biggest pride of the Agrawals were their daughters. Jivisha had secured admission in PES University for Computer Science Engineering course. Her younger sister, 16-year-old Varya, studied in class XI in DPS Gurugram. Family members said the sisters were ambitious and were already planning to study abroad. Varya recently returned from Germany after participating in a student exchange program.
Perhaps nothing represents the family’s success more than their spacious three-storey duplex-style house in Sector-46, Gurugram. They moved there only in December 2025. Vivek Aggarwal bought a 500 square yard plot as an investment in 2015. “But when he started working in Gurugram, he decided to build his dream house there,” Mahendra said.
Construction began in 2018. Father-son duo invested the most ₹4-5 crores of this, mainly from his savings. Despite having a major heart surgery in 2019 and living with only 35% heart function, Radhe Shyam personally supervised the production. “Since uncle had decades of experience, he decided to supervise the work himself,” Mahendra said. “He would spend the whole day at the site. He would have lunch in his car and return home only in the evening.”
This routine continued until December, when the house was finally completed. The family shifted from their rented apartment in Noida and organized a grand house-warming ceremony which was attended by relatives, friends and colleagues. Two cars, including Vivek’s beloved white Mercedes C-Class, occupied the portico. The family finally achieved what generations had worked for.
According to relatives, Vivek received a Mercedes as a surprise Diwali gift from HCL in 2015 after successfully completing ₹800 crore project. “He loved cars,” family members said. The Mercedes stood outside Flourish Stage for several days after the fire – abandoned and ownerless.
A father fighting for life and death
In 2024, Radhe Shyam was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease. His health continued to deteriorate. According to Vivek’s cousin Vikram Aggarwal, the family members had gathered at his Gurugram residence on May 20 after his condition worsened. He was admitted to Max in Gurugram on May 9 and discharged two days later. After brief stints elsewhere, he was eventually transferred to Max Saket on 31 May. Doctors placed him on BiPAP support as oxygen levels dropped and organs began to fail.
On June 2, Vivek, his wife Tarjani, daughters Jivesha and Varya and mother Prem Lata moved from their house in Sector-46 to Flourish Stays opposite Max Saket. The reason was practical. The repeated journey between Gurugram and the hospital took about three hours a day. they booked three rooms ₹3,500 each. The property, which has a 4.6-star rating on Google, drew praise for its cleanliness, staff and food.
More relatives came from Ajmer on the night of 2nd June and morning of 3rd June. These included Vivek Aggarwal’s cousin, 64-year-old Ashok Aggarwal, and maternal uncles, 73-year-old Javari Lal Aggarwal and 68-year-old Kamla Aggarwal. They came to support the family in difficult times.
Fire
Three days later, tragedy struck. A massive fire engulfed the bed and breakfast. The family members trapped inside called relatives, pleaded for help and tried their best to escape. At 8.50 in the morning, Mahendra got a call from Vivek Aggarwal. The family immediately fled from Kotla. Mahendra said, “We kept calling the fire department. We saw a fire vehicle and followed it and reached the spot by 9.15 am.”
Swati Agarwal, wife of Vivek’s cousin Vikram, said the firefighters were initially focused on controlling the fire. “We kept shouting that our family members were trapped in the basement and the fourth floor. Rescue workers then arranged for a cutting torch and opened a closed emergency exit connected to the basement,” he recalled.
Vivek and Ashok were taken out first. “We tried to give CPR on the road but there was no response,” Swati said. All eight members of the Agrawal dynasty perished in the fire.
Back at Max Hospital, Radhe Shyam remains unaware. “He kept asking about Vivek and everyone else but we decided to tell him only after he was taken out of the ICU,” Swati said.
That moment never came. He died on 9 June. “He died without giving us a chance to tell us anything,” he said.
Today the relatives occupying the house in Sector-46 are not able to even think about legal and financial matters. “First we have to learn how to live with this pain,” Mahendra said. “The country will forget it in a day, but this pain will stay with us till we die.”
“This happened because of deep corruption and negligence,” Mahendra said. “It took Vivek and his entire family away from us.”
Today, the beautiful home built over six years stands largely silent. The dreams of three generations are frozen within its walls. And a family that did everything right – studied hard, worked honestly, cared for the elderly and invested in building a better future – and was living the Indian dream that was destroyed in a tragedy that had been predicted many times over.
