5-yr-old girl dies after shop’s glass countertop falls on her head

A 5-year-old girl died after a glass countertop fell on her head at a shop in Mumbai. The shop owner and his help have been booked for culpable homicide.

MUMBAI: A five-year-old girl died after the glass countertop of a shop in Andheri East fell on her head on Tuesday morning. The Meghwadi police have booked the owner of the shop and his help for culpable homicide.

HT Image

The incident took place around 11am when the deceased, Sanjana Anil Chavhan, had gone to buy snacks in the shop in their neighbourhood in Andheri’s Pump House locality along with some other children.

The children allegedly pushed the wheeled shelf in the shop front and the glass countertop over it tumbled down towards the children. While others could escape, Sanjana who was in the middle of the group could not get away in time and sustained fatal injuries.

“The cart was usually put in place with some wooden breakers put along its wheels. At the time that the children reached there, one of the workers was cleaning up the premises and had therefore taken off the breakers,” said senior inspector Rajendra Mandhare. The children seemed to have tugged at some area on the counter which made it move, leading to the glass top falling, he added.

Police said that prima facie, she had sustained deep gashes on her head and ears. People from the locality took the girl to Trauma Care Hospital in Jogeshwari where doctors declared her brought dead and the body was sent for post-mortem.

“The body of the child was handed over to her parents on Wednesday morning. They all left for their native place in Karnataka for the last rites,” said senior inspector Mandhare.

The two accused - Anand Raj, 47, and Krishna Govindam, 34, - were arrested on Tuesday and produced in court on Wednesday and were granted bail by the court.