Kolkata, Jun 13 (PTI) When shocking visuals of a giant Air India aircraft crashing to the ground and exploding into a ball of fire flashed across TV screens on Thursday afternoon, little did 70-something Vipul Rupani, a resident of Bhowanipore in south Kolkata, know that the horror would soon turn into an unspeakable personal tragedy.

Cousin to former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who was on board the UK-bound flight and perished in the crash, Vipul would only come to know of his brother's fate later in the day from a post on a social media group made by one of his extended family members.

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“I lost a guardian who stayed beside me and all other family members here in Kolkata through thick and thin,” Vipul told PTI on Friday, almost breaking down.

Some 25 members of the extended Rupani family, including Umed Rupani, the deceased BJP leader's elder brother, have lived in various parts of Kolkata and adjacent Howrah for generations even as one arm of the family, that of Vijay Rupani, migrated to Rajkot for studies and eventually settled in Gujarat.

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Calling the late politician his ‘bada bhai' (elder brother), Vipul reminisced about the leader's visit to Kolkata last year to attend a family function.

"The last time he (Vijay) visited Kolkata was a year ago when he stayed with his elder brother Umed at the latter's residence in Hazra, not far from where I live. We chatted a lot and had so much fun together. At that time, he was not Gujarat's political figurehead, but he treated everyone as his close relative," he recollected.

"Bada Bhai's death is a shock for me. It's a huge loss for our family. It's a tragedy that would be very difficult for us to overcome. He was the guardian of the Rupani family," Vipul, who runs a business in central Kolkata, lamented.

Vipul said that Umed was in a state of shock after hearing the news about this brother and had left for Ahmedabad on Friday morning.

"Umed bhai is unable to speak. He is not taking calls as well. He rushed to Ahmedabad today," he said.

The former CM's relative confessed that he and others in the family weren't initially aware that Vijay Rupani was on board that ill-fated aircraft.

The Rupani family members, who interact regularly on a WhatsApp group, went numb in horror after learning about the tragedy, Vipul said.

"I, too, am planning to travel to Gujarat soon along with other members from various wings of our family here to join those who have already reached," he said.

Vijay Rupani, who served as the chief minister of Gujarat from August 2016 to September 2021, was among the passengers killed in the Ahmedabad Dreamliner air crash on Thursday.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)