A day of celebration quickly turned into a horror show when a tech CEO plunged 15 feet to his death in an on-stage mishap in front of horrified employees in India.
Vistex CEO Sanjay Shah and Vistex President Vishwanath Raju Datla were inside an iron cage that was being lowered onto a stage as part of their grand entrance to a company party when a wire snapped, the Times of India reported.
Shocking video showed the moment the yellow cage hovering near the rafters began to wobble as fireworks exploded and a voice implored the crowd to “put their hands together” for the pair.
The cage then quickly dropped to one side, sending the two heads of the Illinois-based company hurtling 15 feet to the ground — roughly a one-story drop.
One of the men completely flipped over, landing head-first on the ground, the video shows.
Shah was killed in the accident. Datla was left in critical condition.
Although the cause was attributed to a snapped wire, officials are investigating the incident and faulty cage, which was pulled by a rolling machine and had iron wires and grills.
Shah and Datla were in India to celebrate their Vistex Asia’s silver jubilee, which was being celebrated across two days at the famous Ramoji Film City.
“Shah and Raju being lowered from the cage onto the dais was a planned event to kickstart the celebrations,” a company official told the outlet.
Vistex, founded by Shah in 1999, is an advisory service company with more than 20 global offices and a hefty client list that includes GM, Yamaha, Coca-Cola and more.
The Mumbai, India native immigrated to America more than a decade earlier to attend Lehigh University’s business school, where he earned his MBA in 1989 at the age of 21, according to the institution.
He went on to donate $5 million to establish the Vistex Institute for Executive Education at the school in 2017.
Shah was a philanthropist who also established the Vistex Foundation, which provides grants to nonprofits focusing on health, education, and basic needs programming.
In 2020, he opened the Vistex Hospital in Bihar, India, which became recognized as a national model COVID-19 facility.
The Post reached out Vistex.
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Katherine Donlevy
