By Deepak Tijori 
The boy’s mother alleged the residents had been complaining about the malfunctioning lift on the housing society’s WhatsApp group for some time.
More than a month after a 10-year-old boy died due to lift malfunctioning at a housing society in Mumbai, police on Tuesday registered an FIR against the secretary, committee member and treasurer of the housing society committee along with the lift contractor and technician.
While the incident took place on June 7, the police registered an FIR on charges of causing death due to negligence on Tuesday. No arrests have been made in the case.
An officer said, ” It took us a month to register an FIR since we were conducting an inquiry to get evidence that it was due to the negligence of the accused that the boy passed away.”
As per the complaint given by Priyanka Barhate (30), the mother of the deceased boy Rudra, they resided on the fifth floor of Suprabhat housing society at Lallubhai compound in Mankhurd along with her husband, four children and brother-in-law Prashant.
According to Priyanka, the issue of lift malfunctioning was raised by many in a WhatsApp group of the housing society residents.
On June 6, she said, while her brother-in-law Prashant was coming home from work, he saw that the lift was shut and a technician was repairing it in the presence of the building treasurer.
As per her complaint, Prashant told the treasurer that they should keep the lift shut till it is repaired completely as it had been malfunctioning frequently and some untoward incident may happen.
The next day, Priyanka sent her son Rudra to purchase something from a provision store near the building. After some time, she saw that a crowd had gathered near the seventh floor. She rushed to the spot and found that it was Rudra who was lying on the ground.
Residents said they had pulled him out of the lift shaft and he was lying unconscious. He was rushed to the local hospital where he was declared brought dead.
In her complaint she said that after Rudra took the lift, it started malfunctioning and due to overspeeding, it went above the seventh floor instead of the fifth floor.
Instead of the landing spot on the seventh floor, the lift went 13 to 14 inches above it. Rudra, who may have tried to come out, fell in the gap and sustained serious injuries, she said.
Priyanka also alleged that it was on account of the negligence of the building committee that the incident took place. She further said that the contract for lift maintenance was given in April 2022. She also alleged that the technician who was repairing the lift did not have the necessary educational qualification to do the same and was just working as a helper.