Cyrus Mistry, the scion of one of India’s most prominent empires, died in a road accident on a highway near Mumbai on Sunday, according to Maharashtra police.
Mistry, 54, was one of two people who died when the car they were traveling in hit a barrier between two lanes, according to Shrikant Shinde, a Maharashtra police official.
Two other people in the vehicle were injured and taken to hospital, he added.
Mistry is best known as the former chairman of Tata Sons, the massive Indian conglomerate that owned Jaguar, Land Rover and the Taj hotels.
The Irish-Indian businessman made headlines in 2011 when he was announced as Tata’s chosen successor, and became the first person not directly related to the Tata family to head the company bearing their name.
Mistry’s family was a major stakeholder in the Mumbai-based conglomerate, which runs top-tier companies across several sectors.
In 2016, Mistry was replaced in a sudden corporate shakeup that led former Chairman Ratan Tata to come out of retirement to lead the firm on a temporary basis. Mistry ouster created a bitter public feud between the former chairman and the group’s board.
Prior to his time with Tata, Mistry was best known as the son of Indian construction billionaire Pallonji Mistry and served as head of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, a major construction company known for erecting skyscrapers and stadiums across India
