Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil is founder and chairman of VPS Healthcare
UAE-based entrepreneur Shamsheer Vayalil has expressed sorrow over the death of four medical students in last week’s Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad and pledged ₹6 crore to support their families and others affected by the tragedy.
In a post on X, Dr. Vayalil, founder and chairman of VPS Healthcare, a multinational healthcare group, mourned the loss of the students — Manav, Aaryan, Rakesh, and Jaiprakash — describing them as “future frontline heroes.”
“Manav, Aaryan, Rakesh, and Jaiprakash were preparing to save lives, not lose their own. The AI-171 crash took them from us. Pledging ₹6 crore to support their families and others affected,” he wrote and shared their photos.
Calling the gesture personal, Dr. Vayalil, son-in-law of M.A. Yusuff Ali, owner of LuLu Group International, a retail conglomerate, added that the visuals of the students reminded him of his own days in medical hostels. “Having lived in medical hostels, the images felt painfully familiar. This gesture is personal. It stands with the students who never got to serve, and with the families now carrying their memories forward,” he wrote.
The four students were among several people who died when the London-bound Air India flight AI-171 crashed shortly after take-off, in one of India’s worst aviation disasters in recent memory.
They were the students of BJ. Medical College (BJMC), who were having lunch in the mess building when the tragedy struck. The Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA) of the BJMC confirmed the fatalities and added that 20 other students were injured in the crash. Of them, 11 have been discharged and are currently in stable condition, while the rest are recovering under observation.
“All admitted patients are stable and recovering quickly,” said Dr. Dhaval Gameti, president of the JDA.
In addition to the student casualties, four family members of super-specialty doctors residing in the “Atulyam” residential quarters also lost their lives. The wife of a resident doctor sustained injuries and is undergoing treatment.
Published – June 16, 2025 10:06 pm IST
