Diamantaires Leave Taj for a Party Right Before Siege

A dinner party thrown by a leading Gujarati diamond trader saved a galaxy of diamantaires from across the world who were in Mumbai.

Varda Shine, managing director of the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), a battery of senior company officials from London and a who's who of the Indian diamond industry were miraculously absent from the violent scene in the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday night.

Shine and her team members had walked out of the hotel earlier to attend a dinner party thrown by a leading diamantaire in Mumbai; luck saved their lives as gun-totting terrorists stormed the hotel around 10 p.m.

Sources said Shine and senior DTC officials arrived from London on Wednesday to attend the year-end meeting with DTC sightholders at Taj. After the meeting in the hotel was over, Shine and her team members were led out to attend the dinner party.

"They walked out of the hotel and terrorists stormed in. Had they been there, they would have been taken hostage by terrorists like other foreign tourists," said Sanjay Kothari, former chairman of the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). According to Kothari, Shine and her team members are safe and sound and they have been sheltered at residences of some of leading Mumbai diamantaires.

Rajeev Bhandari, chairman and managing director of De Beers India told The Times of India, "Shine and others are safe, and we are ensuring that they reach their destination in London safely." The meeting has been going on since Monday, when diamond traders from Gujarat participated, but Shine arrived in Mumbai only on Wednesday to address diamantaires regarding the present situation of the industry.

Chandrakant Sanghavi, regional director of the GJEPC and one of the DTC sightholders, who was supposed to attend the meeting but could not go to Mumbai due to personal engagements, said, "The terrorist attack in Mumbai is shocking. I was more concerned about our diamond industry leaders, including Varda Shine and others who were put up at Taj hotel. In the late night, we got a message that they were safe."