Her head got caught in elevator door; society secretary, chairman booked for negligence
New Sai Dham Society at Lallubhai Compound in Mankhurd
A 16-year-old girl died while playing hide-and-seek in a lift in Mankhurd on Friday evening. The teen, Reshma Kharavi, had stuck her head partially into the square opening of a lift door when it was her turn to find her playmates. Unfortunately, the lift—which had been made operational just five days prior—descended and hit her on her head. The teen’s family members have accused the housing society’s officials of negligence, saying that they did nothing despite being asked to cover the opening.
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Reshma, a resident of nearby Sathe Nagar, had come with her two younger brothers to visit her grandmother Savita Waghari—who resides with her husband on the fifth floor of New Sai Dham Society at Lallubhai Compound—for Diwali. The girl’s aunt, Bhavna Waghari, who was visiting from Ahmedabad at the time of the incident, said Reshma was counting when the incident occurred. The family was about to leave for Gujarat to join their mother who was already there, she added.
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Reshma Kharavi
Reshma’s cousin Vishal, 12, who had gone into hiding, came to see what was wrong after hearing an unusual sound. He was stunned to find Reshma trapped and ran home to seek help. The family then rushed to her rescue but the lift door was found to be jammed and it took them almost 15 minutes to unhinge it. Reshma was then rushed to the nearby Shatabdi Hospital but succumbed to her injuries within half an hour. According to the post-mortem, which was conducted at the civic-run Rajawadi hospital at Ghatkopar, she had suffered head and neck injuries.
New Sai Dham society’s lift had not been operational for over a year. Reshma’s father, Ravi Kharavi, a toy seller, said, “My mother-in-law had told the society’s officials on multiple occasions to cover the opening of the lift door, citing the safety of children, but they did nothing. If the window was closed on Friday my daughter would be alive today.”
Bhavna Waghari, the aunt of Reshma Kharavi
Pravin Waghari, Reshma’s uncle, said that during the repair work, the lift doors had been changed. “At that time itself, my mother-in-law told them not to keep the window of the door open,” he said. On the complaint of Reshma’s mother, Sajan, the Mankhurd police on Monday registered an offence of negligence under Section 304-A of the Indian Penal Code against the society’s secretary Raosaheb Jadhav and chairman Thomas Nagak, who were being interrogated at the time of going to print.
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