Woman dies days after falling from building in Delhi; kin allege she was raped, killed

Police said, prima facie, there was no evidence of sexual abuse but they are awaiting the medical report. Evidence so far suggested that either she killed herself or fell accidentally, they said.

Three days after she fell from the fifth floor of an under-construction building in central Delhi’s Rajendra Place, a 21-year-old woman died at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday.

The dead woman had fallen from the 5th floor of an under-construction building in central Delhi on January 17, 2019. She succumbed to her injuries three days later in a hospital. (Getty Images/ Representative Photo)

Her family has alleged that she was raped and pushed to her death.

Police said, prima facie, there was no evidence of sexual abuse but they are awaiting the medical report. Evidence so far suggested that either she killed herself or fell accidentally, they said.

Earlier, a case under IPC Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) was registered. It was later converted to Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Mandeep Singh Randhawa, deputy commissioner of police (central), said.

Police were not able to get the woman’s statement on record.

The woman lived with her stepmother in outer Delhi’s Mundka and worked with a private firm close by.

The deputy commissioner of police said she had quarrelled with her stepmother on January 16 before leaving home. Her family was alerted after she did not return home that evening.

On January 17, the woman fell off the fifth floor of an under-construction and partially occupied building in Rajendra Place. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital where she battled for life for three days.

The DCP said the probe revealed that she had “willingly” arrived at Rajendra Place with a colleague. “The colleague had left the place before she fell. We detained and questioned the colleague, but there is no evidence, so far, of him being involved in any foul play,” DCP Randhawa said.

“She did quarrel with her stepmother on January 16, but that was over a trivial issue. It wouldn’t have prompted her to kill herself. Why would she travel all the way to Rajendra Place to kill herself,” a cousin of the woman’s said.

The cousin claimed some local residents had told the family that they saw her “screaming” before falling.

“Eyewitnesses saw her being pushed and have told us about it. But they are unwilling to come forward and record their statements,” the cousin claimed.