Delhi: Businessman living in five-star hotel for 37 years, paying Rs 15,000 per day, dies

An 81-year-old businessman, who had been living in a suite of a five-star hotel in the heart of the national capital since the past 37 years, died following long illness, police said.

"Dadi Balsara, living at Taj Man Singh Hotel for the past 37 years, was declared brought dead by doctors at Max hospital. He was taken there by hotel staff as his condition deteriorated last night. His wife predeceased him in 2009 and the couple had no children," said Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) SBS Tyagi.

Balsara, who had two brothers, was under regular heart treatment at Max hospital, said Tyagi, adding he once owned the Himalayan mineral water company.

According to police, the deceased used to live in suite number 901 of the hotel where an attendant from Max hospital used to take care of him as he was highly diabetic and suffered from heart diseases.

As he had been living for so long, the hotel was in some sort of agreement with him and he was given the suit on discounted rates which was somewhere around Rs 15,000 per day.

Balsara, an NRI from Singapore, had started Mount Everest Mineral Water Limited in 1991 which was later acquired by Tata group in 2001 which today markets the mineral water under the brand name HIMALAYAN.

According to Balsara's attendant, he had slept around 9:30 PM after having his dinner. He woke up around 11:30 PM to relieve himself and went to sleep again.

"Around 2:30 AM, the attendant found Balsara's body motionless following which he informed the hotel staff. Prima facie it appears that he died due to cardiac arrest," said a police official.

Around Rs 250 crore is in Balsara's account, police said, while adding he had wished to give some of the money to his relatives and the rest to charity.

"Prima facie there is no foul play and it seems to be a natural death. But we will still get the postmortem done tomorrow," Tyagi said.

Balsara was the eldest among his brothers. Being a Parsi, he will be cremated as per the rituals of the religion. His younger brother, a cardiologist in Jamshedpur, has reached Delhi.