23-year-old lift man ‘jumps’ from 5th floor balcony after failed robbery attempt, dies
NEWDELHI: A 23-year-old lift operator allegedly jumped to death in south Delhi’s RK Puram on Saturday after he was nabbed while trying to apparently carry out a burglary at a government official’s flat .
Police said the suspect, Pawan Kumar, also allegedly attacked two occupants of the house with a sharp weapon, a gardening tool, before jumping to his death from a balcony.
Chinmoy Biswal, additional DCP (south), claimed that Pawan was found wearing a face mask and hand gloves when a police team reached the spot. He said that only a single case of house trespassing has been registered in this incident.
Pawan’s family, however, claimed that they suspected foul play in the incident and alleged that their repeated requests for a thorough probe in the death were ignored. “We want the police to also register another FIR related to his suspicious death,” said Bani Singh, Pawan’s uncle.
A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, said that there was no evidence of wrongdoing against the house owner yet. “It can be case of self-defence because the intruder was in someone else’s house. But we will look into all possibilities,” said the officer.
The house where the alleged burglary attempt happened belongs to a senior engineer of the ministry of power.
He lives on the fifth floor of the building with his wife.
The gated and well-guarded residential society mainly houses government servants.
Pawan, police said, had been working as a lift operator in the building for the last five-six months. Local residents said he had been working odd jobs in the society for nearly seven years before that.
According to the additional DCP, initial probe has revealed that Pawan entered the flat around 2 am through the balcony, after breaking a window pane. How Pawan reached the balcony on the outer side of the fifth floor of the building remains unexplained.
But Pawan’s alleged break-in woke up the couple living in the house. The additional DCP said that when the house owners tried to nab the intruder, he allegedly attacked them with a weapon, leaving them with multiple cuts .
“A scuffle ensued and the intruder tried to escape from the house by jumping from the balcony. But he fell and hit the ground, dying on the spot,”said Biswal, adding that the intruder’s identity was revealed only when the police removed his mask.
Hindustan Times visited the senior engineer’s family to seek their response , but they refused to talk saying they “did not want the media to cover the incident”.
Pawan’s family, meanwhile, raised questions about the circumstances surrounding his death.
“For entering the flat through the balcony, Pawan would have to climb climb up five floors like Spider-man?” alleged Pawan’s uncle Bani Singh.