Nepal violence: How Ghaziabad man’s 15-hour search for wife ended in Kathmandu morgue

GHAZIABAD: As flames licked the night sky and chaos erupted on the streets of Kathmandu, Ramveer Dola found himself in a nightmare he could never have imagined.For Ramveer and his wife Rajesh, it began as a vacation filled with temple visits and quiet moments. But in hours, it turned into a harrowing race for survival — a story of separation, frantic hope, and a devastating loss.The couple from Ghaziabad had arrived in Kathmandu on Sept 7, planning to explore the capital city and pay their respects at the Pashupatinath temple. They checked into a room on the fourth floor of Hyatt Regency, unaware that the city was on the brink of turmoil. On Sept 9, after a day of sightseeing, Ramveer and Rajesh returned to their hotel, exhausted but content.But as night fell, the city's simmering unrest exploded. Protests against the Nepal govt, sparked by a controversial social media ban and deep political dissatisfaction, spiralled into violence. By 11.30pm, a mob had set Hyatt Regency ablaze. Trapped on the upper floors, Ramveer and Rajesh faced a terrifying choice — stay and risk the fire, or attempt a perilous escape. "Scared, my mother told my father, ‘let's leave from here. Or, we won't survive'," the couple's son, Vishal, told TOI.Thinking quickly, Ramveer smashed the window pane and threw their mattress to the ground below. He knotted together bedsheets and curtains to fashion a makeshift rope. Rajesh, still recovering from a hand injury sustained during the Mahakumbh earlier this year, began her descent first. But as she reached the second floor, her grip failed. She fell, striking her back and head on the concrete below. Ramveer followed, injured but alive, and rushed to his wife's side.In the chaos outside, an Army truck arrived and took an injured Rajesh in. Ramveer pleaded with the soldiers to let him accompany his wife to hospital, but they refused, even though there was space."When the Nepal military separated me and my wife, I thought I would never see her again," Ramveer later recounted. Desperate, he found a local resident willing to help him follow the Army vehicle on a scooter. But a flat tyre delayed them. By the time Ramveer reached the nearest Army camp, he was denied entry until a relative in the Indian Air Force intervened.Rajesh, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. The family, with the help of the Indian Embassy and local contacts, circulated her photo across Kathmandu, searching hospitals and camps. Ramveer — exhausted and injured — moved from one pillar to another, clinging on to hope.On the morning of Sept 10, he learnt that the injured from Hyatt had been taken to Veer and Teaching hospitals. At Veer Hospital, there was no sign of Rajesh. It was only at Teaching Hospital, after around 15 hours of search at 3pm, that Ramveer received the crushing news — his wife had succumbed to her injuries and her body was lying there.The ordeal did not end there. With flights grounded and the city under curfew, bringing Rajesh's body home became another struggle. Local helpers, though charging hefty amounts for their services, assisted Ramveer in arranging an ambulance to the Sunauli border. From there, the family hired another ambulance and drove through the night to Ghaziabad, where Rajesh's body arrived on Friday morning and was cremated in the presence of relatives.The Dola family's tragedy is not an isolated one. As protests swept Kathmandu, at least 200 from Andhra Pradesh and dozens from other states were stranded in Nepal.