Grandhi was to attend ad shoot with Shruti Hasan

Manoj Kumar Grandhi, head of the AP jewellery giant Vaibhav, was on his way to Mumbai for an advertisement shoot featuring actor Shruti Hasan when he met his death at the hands of three drivers in Bangalore who robbed him of jewellery worth Rs 3 crore.

“Manoj purchased jewellery in Jaipur and Hyderabad, before making more purchases at a jewellery exhibition in Bangalore on February 6 for an advertisement shoot for the Vaibhav Group with actor Shruti Hasan in Mumbai,” chairman of Pydah Group of Educational Institutions Pydah Krishna Prasad, son-in-law of Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah, told reporters here on Friday.

A pall of gloom descended on the Grandhi household Bangalore police confirmed his death. The hopes of his family members and relatives that Grandhi would return home safely, were shattered on Thursday as information started pouring in from Bangalore that the accused, three cab drivers, had confessed to police that they had strangled him and thrown his body on a Ghat road near Chikmagalur.

Even as the Grandhi family barred the media from entering the Pandurangapuram area near Ramakrishna beach in Visakhapatnam, there was a steady stream of people visiting the bereaved family members.

The family members were in a deep shock after Grandhi’s body reached Visakhapatnam. His mortal remains were brought to Visakhapatnam in a special flight from Bangalore on Friday evening. His body was then kept for the public to pay homage at the V-Square showroom where prominent politicians and jewellers offered floral tributes to him. The body was then taken to Chavulamadam burial ground in a big procession and cremated according to Hindu rites.

The brisk construction of new showrooms of Vaibhav jewellery at Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Vizianagaram and Gajuwaka of Visakhapatnam virtually stopped and the staff of Vaibhav Empire Private Ltd stalled sales in Visakhapatnam as TV channels telecast the news of Grandhi’s of Grandhi.

Eluru in West Godavari district, where Grandhi was born, also mourned its son by closing all the jewellery shops on Friday as a mark of respect. Grandhi set up his first shop in Visakhapatnam in 1995. He set up the V-Square, a jewellery and textile mall, in partnership with a friend. The mall employs 250 staff. The Vaibhav Group turnover is said to be around Rs 350 crore. It is also learnt that he had entered into an MoU with a major hotel group for construction of a star hotel in the heart of the city.