3-year-old’s death: FIR registered against Garware Club House management

The police registered an FIR based on the complaint of Parel resident Avnish Rathod, father of the deceased boy Hridyansh. The case has been filed against unknown member of the management committee of Garware Club House under section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC

Mumbai The Marine Drive police, on Saturday, registered an FIR against unknown member of the Garware Club House management committee on the charges of causing death by negligence after a three-year-old boy fell from fifth-floor staircase of the club and died on December 18. The toddler allegedly fell from the gap created by a missing side safety glass on the staircase.

3-year-old’s death: FIR registered against Garware Club House management

The police registered an FIR based on the complaint of Parel resident Avnish Rathod, father of the deceased boy Hridyansh. The case has been filed against unknown member of the management committee of Garware Club House in Churchgate under section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Hridyansh had gone to the club along with his parents and other relatives to enjoy the football World Cup final on a big screen. The final was being screened on the sixth-floor terrace of the club.

The incident took place at around 10.40pm on Sunday night. Rathod, a senior officer with Standard Chartered Bank and member of the Club since November 2019, in his statement to the police, said, “Hridyansh, along with my sister’s son Vivan (11 years), had gone to the toilet on the fifth floor as there was no toilet facility on the terrace. When the two were returning to the terrace, Hridyansh took support of the railing while climbing the staircase. A side safety glass (fixed between the railing and the stairs) between the fifth floor and sixth floor was missing and hence the child lost his balance and fell down.”

Vivan ran back to the terrace and told Hridyansh’s family that he had fallen down from the staircase. Initially, his parents thought that Hridyansh had just slipped and fallen on the staircase itself. But, when they went to check on him, he was not seen anywhere around.

When they reached the ground floor looking for him, they were informed by the club staff that the child had fallen on the ground floor and the club’s security guard had rushed him to Bombay Hospital. The child had sustained multiple injuries and succumbed during treatment at around 2am, police said.

“For the event, the responsibility of planning and management was of Garware Club House management. Because of their negligence my son died in the accident. They are responsible for this,” stated Rathod in the FIR (a copy of which is with HT).

As the parents were in shock and not in a condition to speak to anyone, they approached police only on Saturday and filed the complaint against the club management.

Hridyansh’s uncle Dhanpat Jain said that no one from the club’s management visited the grieving family. “No one from the club even made a phone call and offered condolence to the family. This is shameful,” said Jain.

“We have registered an FIR and have already recorded statements of some guards and others at the club. We are also scanning the CCTV footage. We would soon record the statement of the concerned person from the club management and ascertain whose negligence led to the fatal incident,” said an official from the Marine Drive Police station.

Commenting on the development Raj Purohit, vice president of the Garware Club House, Churchgate, said, “On December 21, the management conducted an important meeting, and it was decided that a retired high court judge would be appointed to thoroughly probe the entire matter and ascertain who’s responsible for the incident. We are in talks with few retired judges. After one of them agrees to our request then in a meeting scheduled to be held on December 27, we would constitute a probe team.”

“We have also decided that henceforth every sixth month a safety audit (including fire safety) would be conducted to prevent repeat of such unfortunate incident in the future,” Purohit added.