Trying to drive away lizards, twin boys fall to death from Ghaziabad high-rise

According to police, the incident took place at Prateek Grand City high-rise in Ghaziabad’s Siddharth Vihar locality

Fourteen-year-old twin brothers were killed late last night in Ghaziabad by falling off the balcony of their 25th floor flat in the Siddharth Vihar locality while trying to drive away lizards, police said on Sunday.

The incident took place reportedly at 1 am on Sunday, though the police were yet to piece together the sequence of events leading to the tragic accident.

The incident took place reportedly at 1 am on Sunday, though the police were yet to piece together the sequence of events leading to the tragic accident.

The police identified the twins as Surya Narayan and Satya Narayan, both students of Class 9. Police said initial questioning of the parents of the twins suggest that the deceased were trying to drive away lizards in the balcony, standing on a chair place atop a table.

Police said while the mother of the two was asleep, their father TS Palani, was in Mumbai for official work. Palani, police said, is a senior officer with finance company.

“When the incident took place, their mother and sister were sleeping in a separate room. Though the sequence of events is not clear at this juncture, we held discussions with their parents during handing over of the bodies. They said that there used to be a couple of lizards in the balcony, and the two boys were probably trying to drive them away, as they used to do often,” Mahipal Singh, circle officer (CO - city 1), said on Sunday evening.

The police said that they also found a table and a chair in the balcony.

“As their parents suspect, the children probably placed the chair atop a table and were trying to drive away lizards. In the process, they might have slipped and fell down. The bodies were handed over to the family members after a post-mortem examination. Earlier, there were speculations that the twins were playing in the balcony, but it was not the case. As of now we did not find any foul play,” the CO added.

According to police, the incident took place at Prateek Grand City high-rise in Ghaziabad’s Siddharth Vihar locality. The residents said that the high-rise is a project comprising about 4,000 flats as high as up to 26 to 29 storeys. The occupancy is about 250 families at present, they added.

The residents who rushed to the site soon after the incident said that the two children were lying close to each other.

“There was hardly a distance of one metre between them. The guards also heard one loud sound as if they landed almost at the same time. Their bodies had injury marks as a result of the fall, and they were declared brought dead when taken to a hospital. Their father was away to Mumbai for the inauguration of his company’s new office, and he rushed back on Sunday morning,” said Sudhakar Yadav, member of the residents’ coordination committee of the high rise.

He said that the residents also found a table and a chair intact in the balcony.

“It was around 1am when the guards at the entrance of the parking heard a loud sound and they thought that some cars must have collided. But the noise came from the backside of the tower. Both children were found lying on the grass near the walking track. Police was called and they inquired about the incident,” Yadav added.

Senior police officials said that they will continue probe into the incident.

“On Sunday morning, we came to know from initial details that the children had told their mother that they will observe the moon from the balcony. Things are still not clear, but we will rope in a special team to inquire the reasons for the accident. There are several questions that need to be answered,” said Nipun Agarwal, superintendent of police (city 1).

The police said that they have not received any complaint so far from the family members.