HERITAGE HORROR

Unilever’s top officials, including outgoing chairman Patrick Cescau, new chief Paul Polman, who will take over from Cescau at the end of December, president Harish Manwani and India chief Nitin Paranjpe stumbled out of the Taj at around 2 a.m. on Thursday morning after a harrowing night and were quickly bundled out to a guest house, said sources.

Reports said Gautam Adani of the eponymous Adani group was at the Chambers restaurant at the Taj but managed to slip away.

ICICI’s executive director Madhabi Puri-Buch also managed to get away from the Taj. So did the son of a high-profile financier in the city.

Ispat Industries director Vinod Garg, who was having dinner with his wife and a foreign delegation, were among the few to escape from the Trident.

Indian Hotel’s vice-chairman R.K. Krishna Kumar was at the Taj for a large part of the day. Tata Motors’ chief Ravi Kant reportedly visited the hotel on Wednesday night. Both were able to leave the hotel.

However, some senior employees of Indian Hotels are still stuck at the Taj where a few employees have become victims of the terrorists’ gunfire.

Two employees of national carrier Indian who were escorting three members of Parliament managed to escape, said the Indian’s spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava.

So did a few HPCL employees who were escorting the same MPs. It is learnt that an employee of HPCL is still stuck at the Taj.

Sources say the managing director of a US-based company and his wife are still at the Trident.

It is learnt that this couple resided at the Nariman Point luxury hotel.

There is very little clarity about how the top honchos managed to flee the hotel with most reluctant to recount the episode.

More people managed to escape from the Taj rather than the Oberoi as the former has several exits spread over two sprawling properties — the heritage wing and the new tower that was added in the 1970s.