Woman dies, her grandson hurt after fall into lift shaft

Hyderabad: A 57-year-old partially visually impaired woman died and her 15-month-old grandson suffered injuries after the two slipped into the lift shaft from the fifth floor of Bhavani Apartments in Anand Nagar Colony in Khairatabad on Friday. The toddler, who was rushed to a private hospital, will be under observation for the next 48 hours, police said.The deceased, K Radha, was undergoing dialysis and was around 70% visually impaired, police said. Despite repeated attempts for their reaction, GHMC (Khairatabad zone) officials remained unresponsive.At 6.15pm, according to Khairatabad inspector B Venkata Reddy, Radha was returning to the fourth floor, where her daughter's family lives, when the incident occurred."Radha went to the terrace (of the five-storied apartment complex) with her two grandchildren to play. While returning, her granddaughter took the stairs, while the grandson was with her," the inspector said.Police suspect she might not have realised she did not press the lift button properly and thought the lift had arrived before it actually did. CCTV footage reviewed by investigators showed she first tried opening the landing door, but it did not open. The second time, she forcefully pulled the door open and stepped forward, apparently unaware that the lift car had not arrived.Police said the lift car was on the first floor when the incident occurred. As she fell into the shaft, she tried to grab the lift cables, but could not."She landed above the lift car and got trapped horizontally between the lift cables and the shaft wall. The child was with her when they fell," an official, who had reached the scene told, STOI.Residents on the lower floors heard a loud thud and rushed out. Police said the residents alerted Radha's daughter and managed to rescue the child before shifting him to CARE Hospitals in Banjara Hills. Alerted through a ‘Dial 100' call, Khairatabad police reached the spot and shifted Radha to NIMS Hospital.Officers who reached the scene said they climbed onto the lift structure to retrieve her. Police said they initially checked for her pulse, but found no signs of life. Doctors at NIMS later declared her brought dead. She had suffered severe head injuries and fractures to both legs, police said. The condition of the grandson cannot be determined until the next 48 hours, police said.Radha, a native of Visakhapatnam, had recently moved to the Khairatabad flat from Uppal owing to her son-in-law's job at a private construction company. She was living with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.Speaking on how the landing door opened despite the lift not arriving, police said preliminary examination by a lift technician suggested a possible malfunction that might explain how the landing door opened despite the lift car being on the first floor. However, officials said the exact cause was still under verification and no case of negligence has been registered against anyone at this stage.Radha's body was shifted to the Gandhi mortuary for a post-mortem examination and later handed over to her family.Based on a complaint from Kishan, the deceased's son-in-law, a case was registered under Section 194 (unnatural/ suspicious death) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).