Teen glued to mobile chided, jumps from suburb high rise
A 15-year-old boy ended his life after jumping off the 14th floor of an elite high-rise in Kandivali's Thakur village on Tuesday morning after his mother allegedly told him not to spend his quality time on the cell phone.
The boy, who his neighbours, building friends and school-mates dubbed as ‘very good’ in academics and sports, left a suicide note on his Instagram account saying, 'Sorry if I've done any of you all wrong', nearly three hours before he leapt off the floor’s refuge area of one of the wings of Challenger Towers.
The deceased, Sean Vaz alias Seanny, was studying in standard 10 at Gundecha Education academy and lived with his grandfather in the high rise. His mother and sister lived in an adjacent high-rise.
His parents run a travel and tour business.
The Samata Nagar police have registered an Accidental Death Report and sent the body to the Borivali postmortem centre. Vaz’s father, who was in Canada, is on his way back.
Senior Inspector of Samata Nagar police station Anil Mane said, “He committed suicide at 6 am. His mother said the boy used to spend quality time on social media. She scolded him after she saw him playing games on his cell phone late at night.”
A lady from another wing of Challengers Towers saw Vaz seated on the refuge of the 14th floor, with both his legs dangling precariously.
“I was in kitchen at 5:30 am when I saw someone looking at his mobile screen while perched on the refuge of the 14th floor. Both his legs were dangling in the air. I immediately informed the security guard on intercom as refuge area is an unusual place for anyone to sit,” the woman told the Free Press Journal. The police have recorded her statement.
Another woman from the Towers said, “It was early in the morning and I was in the lift when I heard a loud thud. Initially I thought someone had thrown garbage of their apartment. But when I stepped out of the lift, I saw security guards rushing towards the spot where the boy had fallen.’’
Vaz’s building friends, all teenagers, were visibly upset when they saw his body lying in a pool of blood. One of his friends said, “We often played together. Last evening, we had a good laugh over jokes he had cracked. He was very jovial. Vaz last spoke to a friend at 1.30 am. That is when his mother scolded him, asking him to keep his cell phone aside and get some sleep.” Investigators are scrutinising CCTV footage at the site. “Unfortunately, the CCTV camera installed in the refuge area of the 14th floor is non-functional,” a woman said. Some of his school friends reached Towers. “He was very good at studies and sports. He liked football a lot and was the goal-keeper of the school team. He was also a member of the Indian Football Academy. We met him last week but he did not seem to be depressed,” said one of his school friends.