Sovya and Anuj Tukral testify about family's trauma
Sovya and Anuj Tukral, Romanch's aunt and uncle, describe the phone call hearing the family's screams, the history of carriage incidents, and the devastating impact on Romanch's mother Priya, who is numbed and devastated.
Good morning, members of the committee, and thank you for letting us speak.
My name is Sovya Tukral.
I'm along with my husband, Anuj Tukral.
We are here for our nephew, Romanj Mahajan, who lost his life in Central Park on June 17, 2026.
He arrived in New York just two days prior, on June 15th.
He was so excited to start college.
He had been accepted to one of the top universities in India.
And at 18, he had every dream and his entire life still ahead of him.
He was kind, sincere, he loved being around little children, and he carried himself with an honesty and loyalty to his family that you don't see in someone that young.
I need to tell you about one phone call.
On June 17th, that afternoon, I called my brother.
Deepak Mahajan, expecting to hear that they were having a wonderful day.
Instead, I heard him crying, begging me, begging the officers at the scene, telling them, save my son.
I heard my sister-in-law, Priya Mahajan.
I heard Roman's little brother, Manik Mahajan, crying, horrified.
Those screams, those cries, those sounds of agony and despair, those sounds have not left me and they haunt me every single time.
They come back to me and they will for the rest of my life.
A boy who came here to celebrate the start of his new future in the city he was so excited to see never went home.
The unattended horse spooked and bolted.
And when it did, Romance tried to save his mother and it cost him his life.
Romance is not a tragedy on a page.
He was a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, a young man with a future that belonged to him.
He was a part of a family, just like the elderly woman who was catastrophically injured and the tourist who was dragged by two spooked horses in 1997,
just like two passengers who were injured by the runaway horse Nikki in 1998, 61st Street and 5th Avenue, two carriage incidents of 2003.
Years of injured victims, years of life-changing events, years of families getting broken.
The difference here is that romance is the first death from decades and decades of horse-drawn carriages.
injuries and catastrophes.
Now, will you finally act and put a stop to this industry?
I am standing here in support of Roman's law so that his death will not go unremembered.
His passing will not be forgotten.
That forces society to change.
So that no other family ever has to carry what we carry now.
Please remember his name, Ramach Mahajan.
Remember the life he lived and the love he gave to everyone around him.
Make sure he's the last person to die from this industry.
I'm sorry.
Make sure it's the last person to die from this adjustment.
Sorry, guys.
His mother is shattered.
She doesn't want to speak anything.
She's numbed, devastated.
Losing her 18-year-old son.
It's painful for everybody in the house.
The house is empty there now.
There is no sound of him.
His room is dark.
Nobody can enter that room anymore.
We just want to thank you for coming here today.
We know how painful this is for you.
You have our deepest condolences, and I just want to thank you for your courage and being able to share what the family is going through.
We know this is very, very difficult for you, and we really appreciate your whole family coming here and testifying before us today.
Yes, I want to reiterate what the speaker said.
Thank you for your courage, and thank you for sharing with us today.
I really appreciate that.
So did you have some words or?
You can speak.