A pall of gloom descended over a residential apartment in Hyderabad's Raidurgam area after a nine-year-old boy fell into an elevator shaft and died on Sunday. The incident took place at TVS Lake View Apartments, where his family had been living for close to two months.
The police said that the boy, identified as Dhanush, was playing with his sister on the third floor when he opened the grill of the lift and looked down. He lost his balance and though his sister tried to pull him back, the lift, which was coming from above, hit him. He fell down the elevator shaft and was crushed. The family heard a loud sound and rushed out to see what happened. But Dhanush was killed on the spot.
Dhanush's father is a priest, and he was the couple's third child. The death has left the family heartbroken and several relatives and neighbours visited their house to offer their condolences.
The Raidurgam police said that Dhanush's father did not file a police complaint, but they registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC, which deals with suspicious death. The body was shifted to the mortuary of the state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) for an autopsy and later handed over to the family.
Investigation officials also said that they might book the lift company, as the grill is not supposed to open unless the lift is on the corresponding floor.
This is not the first such incident to be reported from the city. In February this year, a 10-year-old boy died after his head got stuck in the grill door of an elevator at an apartment in Balaji Nagar in Hyderabad. The boy, a Class 5 student at a nearby school, was reported to be the son of the apartment's watchman and was living on the ground floor with his family.