Divestment hurt the most

What was once the Juhu Centaur is in a shambles today. Its dust-laden interiors, gaping holes in chipped walls and tattered red carpets are a far cry from the plush interiors that it boasted till 2003, when it was sold to the Tulip Star group.

It was picked as a target for the ’93 serial blasts for being a suburban luxury hotel, well known for hosting glamorous Bollywood stars and glittering film events.

However, March 12, 1993, that fateful Friday, changed all that. A smartly-dressed Mohammed Mushtaq Musa Tarani walked into the hotel lugging a blue suitcase. A bell-boy, who offered to help him with the suitcase, was brusquely shooed off.

Tarani checked into room No 3078, left the explosive-laden suitcase near the bed, and walked out - all in a span of 10 minutes. The suitcase exploded at 3:20 pm, blowing up little more than the hotel’s concrete walls and injuring three people.

Restoration work was completed within 18 months of the blast, the hotel, run by the Hotel Corporation of India, was back to normal. However, in 2003, the government sold it off as per its disinvestment policy to hotelier Ajit Kerkar for Rs153 crore. However the sale came under scrutiny after allegations of corruption and the 366-room capacity hotel has been lying unattended since. What the bomb blast could not do, politicians managed quite easily.

“We have not been getting our salary for the last six months,” said a worker (name withheld), who, like others, comes everyday, signs the attendance register and leaves.

Another staffer, showing several of the dilapidated rooms, said, “These rooms were once booked by actors like Sridevi. The hotel was top priority for Bollywood programmes. And now, no one cares to restore it.”

When told that the bomber, Tarani, had been held guilty by the TADA court, one of them said, “What difference would the judgment make to our lives? It will not settle the controversy over the ownership rights of the hotel or restore its lost glory.”