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Teen enters lift shaft in Narela, dies of injuries
The family of Alok, the victim, have said he was 13 years old. The police initially said he was 15, but later said that they are verifying his age and may apply the Labour Act accordingly
A teenage boy died after he got trapped in an elevator shaft at a factory in outer Delhi’s Narela industrial area on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The family of Alok, the victim, have said he was 13 years old. The police initially said he was 15, but later said that they are verifying his age and may apply the Labour Act in the first information report accordingly.
Alok’s mother Anju worked at the three-storey factory where the incident took place, police said. The factory manufactures air coolers.
According to Anju, the factory foreman asked Alok to enter the elevator shaft to repair the lift, which had not been working for the past few days. “My son would often come to the factory to play with his younger sister. Today, the foreman asked him to do some work for him and offered to pay him for it,” said Anju.
She said the foreman took her son away to repair the lift, which she said was dysfunctional for the past few days. “They didn’t need to force a 13-year-old boy to do that work,” she said.
“The boy entered the shaft of the lift and the elevator began operating, leaving him trapped in the cables,” said Ravi Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north).
“We are yet to determine what caused the lift to start functioning suddenly, but the boy got trapped in the cables and died of injuries to his neck and other body parts,” said a police officer, adding that the boy died before he could be taken to hospital. The police are also probing if the boy was electrocuted in the shaft.
The police registered a case of death by negligence but they are still investigating the sequence of events that led to the incident, said officers.
Police said they will first determine culpability before arresting anyone in the case.
