Paras S Porwal is a well-known Mumbai-based real estate developer in India. He came into limelight on 20 October 2022 when he committed suicide by jumping from his 23rd floor flat in South Mumbai’s Chinchpokli tower where he lived with his family. According to the police report and suicide note, Paras S Porwal took extreme measures as he suffered huge financial losses in many of his business projects.
Wiki/Biography
Paras Shantilal Porwal was born in 1965 (age 57 years; at time of death) in Jalore, Rajasthan. Paras S Porwal grew up in Jalore in Rajasthan. He migrated to Mumbai in the early 1980s and started living with his sister’s family in a chawl in Ambewadi in Kalachowkie, Mumbai area.
Physical appearance
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
His mother’s name is Shanti Devi. He has a sister.
Wife & Children
His wife’s name is Manju Porwal. The couple have a son and a daughter named Rony and Rikki respectively. His son-in-law’s name is Akruti.
Address
He lives in the Shantikamal Cooperative Housing Society in South Mumbai, India on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd floors.
Career
Property
After moving to Mumbai from Rajasthan, he started working as a seller of imitation jewelery in local railways in Mumbai. He used to spend his nights sleeping outside a shop in Mumbai’s Kalachowkie area. With the passage of time, he started working as a real estate broker in the early 1980s. A BJP secretary and former MLA from Kankavli assembly constituency, Pramod Jathar mentioned in a media talk that Gundecha Developers gave Paras his first commission for selling flats in the project. Pramod Jathar and Paras have worked as partners in many redevelopment projects in Central Mumbai. Pramod Jathar recalled,
He had humble beginnings. He used to sell fake jewelery in trains at first and slept outside a shop in Kalachowkie. Slowly he started a real estate brokerage business. Around 1985 Paras Gundecha of Gundecha Developers which also belongs to Jalore, gave him his first commission to sell flats in a project.”
After that, Paras S Porwal started selling plots in Mumbai and started working for a construction company. He started providing floor tiles to other developers. In 1998, he received a major opportunity in his career when he bagged a redevelopment project named Bawalawadi Redevelopment Project opposite Voltas Tower in Parel, which was given to him by Paras Gundecha. He was a resident of Balewadi Chawls at that time. Pramod Jathar says,
I am the secretary of chawl association. Paras offered to get a developer to redevelop the chawl. Then, we decided to develop it ourselves.”
In the same discussion, Pramod Jathar said, in the 1990s, the Development Control Regulation policy was amended by the state government, and this amendment allowed the redevelopment of old buildings belonging to the BMC. Soon after the announcement of the amendment Paras S Porwal and Pramod Jathar started working with the BMC Improvement committee. Porwal is known for undertaking many major redevelopment projects such as Kach Kharkhana in Wadala and the redevelopment of Prerna Society on Sasmira Institute Road in Worli Naka.
Politics
Paras S Porwal contested assembly elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket from Mazgaon assembly constituency in Mumbai in 2004. His opponent, Bala Nandgaonkar (who later joined Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) defeated him in the elections. Two contestants Nandgaonkar (Shiv Sena) and Chhagan Bhujbal’s son Pankaj of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Mazgaon assembly constituency are Porwal’s opponents. He received 7,888 votes in the election.
Controversy
He courted controversy in 2018 when he was accused by the Bombay High Court in cases of cheating and fraud and real estate fraud. The Mumbai Police booked him for listing sixty-two bogus companies in the Gandhi Nagar project in Worli, Mumbai. He created this fake company to claim additional ‘Floor Space Index’ from the state government.
Death
On October 20, 2022, Paras S Porwal jumped from the 21st floor of the Shantikamal Cooperative Housing Society in South Mumbai, India in the early hours of the morning at 6 am. His body was seen by a priest of a temple, which was built on the premises of the establishment, lying in a pool of blood. Paras is the owner of this establishment and the building was built by his company, Om Shanti Universal Private Ltd. An accidental death report (ADR) was lodged at the Kalachowkie police station after his death. The police report stated that Paras jumped from the gym area of his home and left a suicide note before dying. He wrote several pages in his diary in Hindi and Gujarati for his family members. The police said,
When we searched his house, in the gym area we found a ‘suicide note’ that said ‘No one is responsible for my death and no one should be questioned about it. The note also contains some words of advice for his son, Rony.”
Police said that Paras S Porwal was rushed to a nearby hospital after committing suicide, but he died after arriving at the hospital. The police said,
A priest in the temple heard a loud bang and later saw Porwal lying in a pool of blood. The priest immediately informed his family members and Porwal was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”
His funeral was attended by some prominent political leaders in Mumbai such as BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar, Ajay Chaudhari and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shivsena’s Dagadu Sakpal.
Shanti Kamal housing society, where the deceased lived
Facts/Trivia
- Paras S Porwal is known for his good nature towards the residents of the redeveloped community. According to one of his close friends, before starting the redevelopment project, Porwal used to take permission from the tenants and the BMC. Only after getting this approval, he used to sell this project to a bigger construction company. For example, once, Porwal acted as a middleman and quit the project by selling the Prerna Community Redevelopment Project to Sugee Developers.
- One of his family members told in a media talk that Paras S Porwal was a disciple of a saint based in Rajasthan, Shantisuri Maharaj. Reportedly, all his construction companies are named after his religious teacher. In the early years of his career, he named his first construction company ‘Om Shanti Construction Private Limited’ after his teacher.
- At his company’s office in east Byculla in Mumbai, he has over fifty employees. After his death, one of his employees revealed a list of projects that Porwal was working on before he committed suicide. The worker said,
He has projects in Aambewadi, Kalachowkie, Jijamata Nagar, Subhedar Nagar, Worli, and two projects in Chembur and one in Mahim.”
- Paras S Porwal was a well-known and generous philanthropist who used to donate huge sums of money in religious activities to various mandals, especially during the festive season. Several of his employees explained Porwal’s helpful personality in media interviews. They said Porwal was a regular contributor to Ganpati and Navratrotsav Mandals. In 2016, he established a charitable trust called Paras Porwal Charitable Trust, which often helps and feeds the poor and needy on the streets of Mumbai.
A man distributes food parcels to the poor under the Paras Porwal Charitable Trust
- Baba Jadhav, a popular politician from the Thackeray-led Sena party, considered Paras S Porwal’s life journey a “tame story of the rich.” Jadhav in a media talk mentioned that Porwal started his career as a small real estate agent, and gradually, he created the Om Shanti Group business empire with his dedication and hard work. Later, Paras S Porwal started several subsidiaries of the Om Shanti Group.
- Reportedly, Paras S Porwal is a fast-growing builder whose notable works include many redevelopment assignments on municipal plots such as the Local Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project in Mumbai. He is the owner of twenty-three real estate companies, and his son Ronnie works in ten of these companies.
- After his death on October 20, 2022, the police narrated the suicide note of Paras S Porwal in front of his family members. In the note, Paras mentioned the names of his family members and some advice to them. He advised his wife and son not to undertake construction projects associated with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA); instead, he told them to take on private development projects only. In her suicide note, she wrote that no one should be held responsible for her death. According to the police, the SRA project at Jijamata Nagar in Worli was under construction at the time of his death.
Categories: Biography
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
