US IT company’s Indian CEO loses away in a stage accident

Hyderabad: Thursday night during a business function at Ramoji Film City (RFC), an iron cage contraption containing the CEO and founder of a global software firm, who was located in the US, crashed, killing the CEO and seriously injuring the president of the company.

The incident happened at Vistex Asia-Pacific Private Ltd.’s silver jubilee festivities. The company’s president, Vishwanath Raju Datla, is fighting for his life in the hospital, while Sanjay Shah, 56, of Illinois, died from his injuries.
Act Vistex intended to host the silver jubilee festivities over two days, and had reserved rooms for its employees at the RFC. An representative from the corporation said, “It was planned to start the celebrations with Shah and Raju being lowered from the cage onto the dais.”
At 7.40 p.m., Shah and Raju were being lowered via ropes and pulleys from a height within the iron cage to the dais below when the disaster occurred. One of the two wires that were fastened to the cage suddenly broke. Both fell more than fifteen feet to fall on the dais made of concrete. Multiple people were injured as a result of this, Abdullapurmet police station sub-inspector D Karunakar Reddy informed TOI. “Music was playing and Shah and Raju were waving to their staff while being lowered at the time of the accident.”
When their health worsened, they were transferred from a corporate hospital to a municipal hospital. Shah passed away shortly after.
The cage included grills on three sides, iron wires on the other, and an aperture that allowed visitors to enter. When the strings snapped, a rolling machine started pushing the cage. The policeman said, “The compartment collapsed at great speed.”
A complaint has been filed under IPC sections 336 (endangering the personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by reckless or careless conduct). The RFC management, senior event manager, chief manager (security), special effects contractor, and rope operator were among those who had reservations.
Shah, who is originally from Mumbai, founded Vistex Inc. in 1999 as a provider of revenue management services and solutions. The firm employs around 1,600 people and makes about $300 million in revenue annually. Customers include Kimberly Clark, HP, Cisco, Nvidia, Adobe, Kellogg’s, Abbott, Bayer, GE, Dow, Dell, Siemens, and Coca-Cola. The US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America are among the regions where it has offices. It also has a location in Hyderabad.