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CEO of US tech company falls to death in stage mishap at company event

Vistex founder and CEO Sanjay Shah as his office in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, Oct. 12, 2017. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

(KTLA) – The CEO of an Illinois-based tech company died in a freak accident last week, and the terrifying incident was caught on video. 

Sanjay Shah, 56, the CEO of Vistex, a revenue management services company, was celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, India, with an elaborate stage performance on Thursday. 


The performance consisted of an “iron cage contraption” carrying Shah and the company’s president, Raju Datla, according to the Times of India

Footage posted on social media shows the moment the cable holding the cage snapped, sending the two executives tumbling 15 feet to the ground. 

Both Shah and Datla were rushed to a nearby hospital, where Shah was pronounced dead. Datla is “battling for his life,” the Times of India said. 

The two were being lowered from a cage onto the dais below as part of a planned event to kickstart the festivities, a Vistex official told the Times. 

A Vistex representative told Nexstar in a statement, “We are still waiting for an official release of information.”

Vistex, which has 20 global offices and more than 2,000 employees, had arranged for the anniversary celebrations to take place over two days. 

The company was founded by Shah in 1999.