Mumbai: Three-year-old boy falls from 8th-floor window in Vikhroli building

Siddhivinayak CHS in Vikhroli, where the incident happened; (right) Shivraj Singh, the three-year-old

A three-year-old boy fell from the eighth floor of a building in Vikhroli (West) on Sunday night through a window of the flat. The 23-storey building, a SRA project, was handed over to the residents in January 2022. Despite residents' requests for safety grills, the developer paid no attention. Parksite police have filed an accidental death report (ADR) as no complaint has been received from the parents or relatives of the deceased.

Dalpat Singh, 29, who had recently moved from Rajasthan to Vikhroli, was running a medical shop. He lived with his wife, Angaas Kunwar, their daughter Divyanshi, and their youngest son Shivraj, 3, in a rented flat, number 803, at Siddhivinayak CHS for a year. On Sunday, while Dalpat was at the shop, he received a call from a neighbour informing him that Shivraj had fallen from the window. Dalpat rushed home from the shop, which was around 200 meters away.

When Dalpat arrived, neighbours had already lifted the child and were rushing him to Samarth Hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, doctors declared the boy dead. The body was later transferred to Rajawadi hospital, where a post-mortem examination was conducted on Monday. The cause of death, as determined by the doctor, was shock and multiple head injuries.

"The family had moved into the flat just a year ago and were living on a rental basis," said a neighbour. "Since we moved to this building, we have been requesting the developer to install grills, but our pleas went unheard. Dalpat installed three steel rods inside the window himself for safety, but it wasn't enough," the neighbour added.

According to police officials, the boy was leaning on the rod when he fell. He hit a car parked below before falling to the ground. The family claimed the body on Monday and returned to their hometown.

Karan Singh, a business partner and relative of Dalpat in the medical shop, expressed deep shock and sorrow. "For the safety of his kids, Dalpat installed the rods inside the flat since the developer made no attempt to install them. Due to this delay, we lost the young child," he added.

Another resident of the building pointed out the complete ignorance and negligence on the part of the developer. The developer has not handed over the corpus fund to the housing society, which could have been used to install the grills. The resident also mentioned the lack of security, CCTV cameras, and lift maintenance, stating that the entire building is in a sorry state.

Following the incident, the developer installed two sample security grills on the windows. mid-day attempted to contact the developer, Ambit Realtors and Dotom Realty but received no official response.

Siddhivinayak CHS has witnessed a previous mishap as well. On January 4, 2023, the under-construction lift parking collapsed on a 20-year-old man. An FIR was filed against the three project heads involved.

23
No. of floors in the building