CCTV captures boy falling to death from Dwarka highrise
A 14-year-old boy, who had represented India at an athletic meet in Japan last year, died after falling from the terrace of an eight-storey building in Dwarka Sector-6 on Wednesday night.
Vaibhav Kumar, a Class IX student of Bal Bharati School in Dwarka, had reportedly gone for his tuition classes in the evening and did not return home. Around 10.30 pm, his body was found in the parking lot of Skylark Apartments, where he lived with his parents and sister.
Footage from the CCTV cameras at the complex showed the boy falling off the terrace at 10.08 pm a few metres away from the main gate.
Police said it could be a suicide, but the teen’s family alleged that he was murdered. Police have ordered inquest proceedings, though the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of death was still awaited.
The family alleged that someone killed him and threw the body from the terrace to make it appear a suicide. “If he jumped from the terrace, as claimed by police, he should have bled profusely after the fall. The building is 90 feet high. There were negligible traces of blood on the ground. Blood was dripping only from his mouth,” a relative said.
Vaibhav’s elder sister Vaishali said their parents went out looking for him in the neighbourhood when he did not return from his tuition class. “They found that he left the tuition place at 6.50 pm. So, I also joined the search,” she said.
“I was on the ground floor and wanted to meet one of his friends on the seventh floor. I took the lift, but on my way up, I decided to take a friend along. So I returned to the ground floor. As I got out of the lift and was about to call my friend, I saw my brother lying on the ground in the parking lot,” she said.
“Barely five minutes ago, I was there and did not notice anything at the spot. I did not hear any scream or noise. He was bleeding from his mouth and nose. I immediately cried for help,” she said.
Vaibhav was taken to Ayushman Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. “The doctors told us that he had died almost two hours before he was brought to the hospital,” Vaishali said.
“He was very good at sports. He won many medals in football and rope jumping. He was to take part in a national meet in October and he was excited. Why would he commit suicide?” Vaishali said.
The boy’s uncle, Kulbhushan, said Vaibhav had bruises on his thighs and legs, a broken rib cage and a fractured spine. “He was probably beaten up. His chest also had injury marks and his face was swollen,” he said.
