CCTV captures boy falling to death from Dwarka highrise

A 14-year-old boy, who had represented India at an athletic meet in Japan last year, died after falling from the terrace of an eight-storey building in Dwarka Sector-6 on Wednesday night.

Vaibhav Kumar, a Class IX student of Bal Bharati School in Dwarka, had reportedly gone for his tuition classes in the evening and did not return home. Around 10.30 pm, his body was found in the parking lot of Skylark Apartments, where he lived with his parents and sister.

Footage from the CCTV cameras at the complex showed the boy falling off the terrace at 10.08 pm a few metres away from the main gate.

Police said it could be a suicide, but the teen's family alleged that he was murdered. Police have ordered inquest proceedings, though the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of death was still awaited.

The family alleged that someone killed him and threw the body from the terrace to make it appear a suicide. "If he jumped from the terrace, as claimed by police, he should have bled profusely after the fall. The building is 90 feet high. There were negligible traces of blood on the ground. Blood was dripping only from his mouth," a relative said.

"The terrace has a five-foot-high fence. It is highly unlikely for somebody to have pushed the child. It seems that he jumped. But we are probing all angles in the case," a police officer said.

Police recovered boy's slippers and books from the terrace.

Sources said the body bore several injury marks, such as bruises and scars, indicating assault. "This is a tricky case. A team of three doctors conducted the post-mortem examination," a police officer said.

Vaibhav's elder sister Vaishali said their parents went out looking for him in the neighbourhood when he did not return from his tuition class. "They found that he left the tuition place at 6.50 pm. So, I also joined the search," she said.

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