Usha Uthup’s Husband Jani Chacko Passes Away at 78

Singer Usha Uthup‘s husband, Jani Chacko Uthup, died in Kolkata on Monday. He was 78 years old.

According to news reported by Press Trust of India (PTI), Chacko suffered a cardiac arrest at home on the night of Jul 8, while watching T.V.

Times of India reports that the singer’s husband was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.  He is survived by the legendary singer and their children, Sunny and Anjali.

The singer met Chacko Uthup, who worked in the tea plantation sector, in the late Sixties when she was a regular performer at Trincas in Kolkata, the mainstay restaurant where Uthup rose to fame.

Vikas Kumar Jha’s 2022 book The Queen of Indian Pop: The Authorised Biography of Usha Uthup describes their first meeting at Trincas took place while the singer was married to her first husband Ramu. The book narrates that Chacko informed Uthup’s then-husband about his feelings for her and they were, in fact, reciprocated by the singer. After ending a five-year marriage to Ramu, the singer and Chacko married in 1971.

According to a blog post by Chacko’s friend and colleague Philip John, Jani Chacko Uthup studied at Lawrence Lovedale School in Ooty and was the son of a brigadier in the Indian Army. Growing up in cities like London, by 1967, he was working in then-Calcutta at tea auctioneers J. Thomas & Co.

Jani Chacko Uthup’s last rites will be held on Tuesday, July 9, the family told PTI.

This is a developing story.