16-year-old student falls to death from foot overbridge in Delhi

The boy, identified as 16-year-old Rakesh Singh, was in his school uniform and on his way to school with three other students when the incident occurred.

A Class 9 student of a government school died on Wednesday afternoon after he fell off a foot overbridge (FOB) on Wazirabad Road as he leaned against its decrepit guardrail, police said on Thursday.

The boy, identified as 16-year-old Rakesh Singh, was in his school uniform and on his way to school with three other students when the incident occurred around 1.30pm on the FOB near Mandoli Jail in northest Delhi’s Harsh Vihar. (HT)

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The boy, identified as 16-year-old Rakesh Singh, was in his school uniform and on his way to school with three other students when the incident occurred around 1.30pm on the FOB near Mandoli Jail in northest Delhi’s Harsh Vihar.

Police officials said the bridge is managed by the Public Works Department (PWD), and added the teen fell from a height of nearly six metres on to the road below, suffering multiple fractures and a fatal head injury.

A case for endangering life and personal safety of others and causing death by negligence was registered under Sections 336 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code against the authority concerned. Deputy commissioner of police (northeast), Joy Tirkey, said the first information report (FIR) mentions the FOB was managed by PWD and that the agency will be asked to join the probe to determine the culpability for the negligence, if any.

“We will issue a notice to PWD, asking its officials concerned to tell us whether the FOB was being maintained by the agency or if it had given a contract for its upkeep to a private party,” said DCP Tirkey.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government said it has ordered an inquiry into the matter. “The safety and integrity of our infrastructure are a top priority for us... the PWD minister has ordered the audit of such foot overbridges across Delhi for safety. The minister has already ordered a thorough inquiry on the matter. Measures are being taken to ensure the immediate assessment and repair of the missing grills to prevent any further such incidents,” said a statement from the government.

Police said the boy lived with his parents and two siblings — an 18-year-old sister and a 14-year-old brother — at Gagan Vihar in Ghaziabad. He was a Class 9 student in Sarvodaya Vidyalaya at Mandoli Extension in the Harsh Vihar area and took a bus or shared auto-rickshaws to travel between home and school. His siblings, too, went to the same school, police added.

On Wednesday, he left home around noon to attend classes in the second shift at the school. He reached the Harsh Vihar bus stop and met three classmates, all of whom usually used the FOB to cross the road and reach the school in Mandoli Extension, said a police officer aware of the case, citing the students.

The schoolmates who were accompanying Rakesh at the time of the incident told police that he was leaning against the guardrails on the FOB while climbing stairs and talking to them. The teenager then fell through the portion where the iron mesh on two sections was either broken or missing.

“The students were talking to each other while climbing. The 16-year-old did not realise that its iron mesh was broken and missing at two points and fell through the gap. His schoolmates raised an alarm and rushed down. Two of them put him in an auto and rushed him to the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival,” the officer added.

The post-mortem examination was conducted at GTB hospital on Thursday.

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Rakesh’s father, Nempal Singh, who works in construction, said he was at a site in Harsh Bazar when his wife Sunita Devi called and told him about the incident. Singh said that he initially told police that his son was thrown off the bridge by some students he fought with a month ago.

“Police later told me that the students involved in the fight were not present at the spot. They say it was an accident. I have not spoken to the three boys who were with my son when he died. If I lost my son due to the negligence of the civic authority, my family should be duly compensated,” said Singh.