The daughter of former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, one of the victims of last year’s horrific plane crash in Ahmedabad, on Friday paid tributes to her father on the first anniversary of the tragedy, saying not a single day passes without remembering him.
Air India’s Boeing 787-8 plane enroute to London crashed on June 12, 2025, soon after take-off, killing 241 people onboard and 19 on the ground. Rupani, who had served as the Gujarat CM from August 2016 to 2021, was among the deceased passengers.
The late CM’s daughter, Radhika Mishra, paid tributes to her father and other victims at the plane crash site here, but declined to comment about her letter she had earlier written to Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran.
In the letter, she has claimed that Air India, owned by Tata Sons, is sending documents requiring families to accept the compensation in exchange for waiving all future and present claims against Air India even when the investigation was not yet complete.
When asked by reporters, Rupani’s daughter refused to comment on her letter and said she was there to pay tributes to her father.
“It has been a year, and we have come to pay tributes. Papa’s service activities continue, and many such initiatives are taking place across Gujarat today. This is the true tribute to him. I feel that not a single day has gone by without everyone remembering him. This is the merit he earned, this is his true legacy, and we will simply carry forward his work for serving others. That is our wish," she said.
In her letter, she reportedly said, “The investigation is not yet complete, yet the document requires families to permanently waive present and future claims before all facts are known. We deserve more than compensation. We deserve answers. We deserve transparency and above all closure."
In its response, Air India said in a statement, “There is one matter we would respectfully clarify at the outset: there is absolutely no deadline or pressure on any family or individual to accept our offer within a set timeframe. It is for this reason that our offer of final compensation did not set out any timetable for acceptance. Families are entirely free to wait until the investigation report has been released, as some have chosen to do."
“We have sought to ensure that there is absolutely no reason for families to feel pressured to choose between immediate financial support and awaiting the investigation report. In the aftermath of the accident, Air India immediately started disbursing compensation on an interim basis. This was intended to meet the immediate financial needs of families, whilst the longer process of assessing final compensation got underway," it said.
In addition, the AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust, established by the Tata group, has also disbursed ex gratia financial assistance of Rs 1 crore to nearly all of the families who lost loved ones in the accident, as part of their philanthropic commitment, Air India added.
Meanwhile, talking to reporters in Rajkot, Rupani’s son Rushabh said that for the past year, Air India has been communicating with the families of the deceased, and the families have given it all support regarding documents and other things.
“With regard to e-mail communication between my sister and Air India, which was supposed to be private communication, was regarding the legal claim waiver, and we are still firm on that."
The company should not have issued a public clarification on a personal communication, he said.
“I have heard from social media that Air India has issued a clarification on that. But again I would like to say that this should be discussed privately between the bereaved families and the company, the concerned parties. There is no point discussing these issues publicly," he said.
He said that with regards to ongoing investigation in the plane crash tragedy, the Rupani family supports efforts by AAI, DGCA and Ministry of Civil Aviation, and all the agencies which are directly and indirectly associated with the probe into this crash.
“If you look at the history of the aviation disaster, these are very complicated and cumbersome tasks that investigation agencies are undertaking, so it takes time. First the data from both the recorders need to be analysed, clean, and step by step it takes time. There is no point hurrying, whatever the result will come out," he said.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit bhai Shah have spoken to our family after the incident. They are also taken aback after learning about the news and have wholeheartedly supported us. We want to urge everyone to have patience and the report will come out and people will know what happened and how it happened. But until then, we should not make any speculations about the report," he said.
