The exact cause of death remains a mystery. While a technician had repaired the collapsible lift door in the `C' Wing of eight-storeyed Shiv Darshan building on Saibaba temple road, Satya Nagar on Friday, the victim herself stayed in the neighbouring Shiv Dhan building.

Ekta's father Chandrakant Rachchh remains cynical stating ``may be it was in her fate'', while the proposed housing society officials blamed the girl for ``negligence.''

The residents in `C' wing are not surprised at the death. Hitesh Solanki from the third floor said, ``The lift needed repairs almost twice a week,'' while another revealed that it sometimes operated on its own. Others had more of such complaints.

There were no witnesses to the ``accident''. ``We found her body dangling between the lift's inner door and the wall, between the groundand first floor,'' Rachchh recalled.

``Ekta was searching for her elder sister Divya (9) in Shiv Darshan at around 12.30 pm. Not finding her there she had come down. She must have closed the lift door when someone upstairs pressed the bell and the lift began to move dragging her along and got stuck...'' he trailed off.

However, Chetan Vanjara and C J Mukhi, society secretary and chairman respectively, ruled out any fault with the mechanism of lift installed by City Lifts. ``We did have problems earlier but ever since Creative Elevators are maintaining them, the lifts have been running smoothly for about two years now,'' said Vanjara. ``Children misuse lifts and I hold the parents and elders responsible. Children should be either guided or accompanied in lifts,'' he added.

S Prabhu of Creative Elevators could not categorically say what caused Ekta's death. Trying to explain he said that the child must have opened the door from inside while in motion due to which the lift halted. ``Her thigh was outsidethe lift touching the wall,'' he claimed. However, he failed to explain how that had caused her death, since he also insisted that the lift would not move unless both doors are closed. He was quick to add that he had not seen the exact position of Ekta's body.

``The firemen could not extricate the body, so I went to the machine room on the top and released the break and manually moved the motor to lower the lift a little so that the body could be removed,'' informed Prabhu.

Meanwhile, Vanjara is waiting for the PWD to issue safety clearance to start operating it again.