Delhi airport canopy collapse: Victim's family to decide on legal action after cremation

The son of the 45-year-old cab driver who died after a portion of a canopy at the Delhi airport collapsed amid heavy rains said the family will take a decision on filing a case in the matter after his father's cremation.

The police handed over the body of the cab driver, Ramesh Kumar, to his family after postmortem at the Safdarjung Hospital on Saturday, a day after the incident, officials said.

"At around 12.30 pm, we received the body of my father after postmortem and we will return to our house. We will go for cremation at around 3.30 pm near our house," Ramesh's 25-year-old son Ravinder said.

He said after his father's cremation, all the family members will discuss and decide whether they would file a case against those responsible for his father's death.

Ramesh was waiting for some passengers at the IGI T-1 Friday early morning when a portion of a canopy covering the departure area collapsed on parked cars amid three hours of heavy rain in the national capital. Six people were also injured in the incident, prompting authorities to suspend flight departures.

On Friday, Ravinder had told PTI that he was sleeping when he got a call from the police station asking him to come to the Delhi airport's Terminal 1 immediately.

Ravinder, who is also a cab driver by profession, was sleeping after finishing his night shift when he got to know about his father's death on Friday.

Ramesh is survived by his wife Asha, two sons, Ravinder and Ashish (22), and two daughters, Rashi (21) and Bhawana (18) -- all of whom stay at a rented house in Vijay Vihar area of Rohini close to Sector 7. Asha works as a domestic help in Rohini.

Upset over the compensation amount offered by the government, Ravinder had said that he had recently purchased the vehicle for Rs 5 lakh and had to make a down payment of Rs 1 lakh.

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, who visited the airport and took stock of the situation at T1, announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the family.