Woman killed as shop’s window shade collapses in Burari market

NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old woman was killed in front of her two teenage daughters after the window shade of a shop, operating out of a dilapidated building at a north Delhi market, collapsed on her Thursday, police said.

The incident took place around 12.30pm when the victim, Sandhya Devi, was buying fruits from a cart at the busy Sant Nagar market in Burari.

Devi’s husband, Sanjeev Kumar, quoted his eyewitness daughter as saying that two unidentified men walking hurriedly atop the building may have triggered the collapse. Investigators said they are yet to ascertain what exactly caused the window shade to come crumbling down.

Police said a case of causing death due to negligence and act endangering life and personal safety of others has been registered at Burari police station.

Devi lived with her husband and two teenage daughters at Baba Colony in Burari. Her husband, who owns a courier business, was at work when his wife and daughters had gone to the market. “My mother had just purchased fruit from a cart when the window shade collapsed. The building had several cracks. My mother would have been alive had the building been repaired,” Devi’s 18-year-old daughter Muskan told police. She added that she rushed her mother to Sushruta Trauma Centre but doctors declared her brought dead.

“I visited the spot later. I realised my daughters were just lucky that they had stood a little away from the cart when the shade collapsed,” Kumar said.

Kumar took his wife’s body to their native home in UP’S Bijnor for cremation but said he will return by month-end and pursue the case against those responsible for the incident.