Girl falls prey to selfie in final plunge

The selfie craze has claimed yet another life in India. The victim, Shivani of Baraula village in Gautam Budh Nagar district, fell to death from the third floor of the famous Great India Place (GIP) mall in Noida, while she was capturing a selfie on Saturday with two of her friends.

Shivani in her 20s tripped over from the building and before anybody could comprehend what was happening, she fell on the ground with a loud thud, said eyewitnesses.

They said large number of people gathered on the spot with some of the shoppers filming the victim who urgently needed medical attention.

It was an elderly man who informed the mall security about the incident, said locals, adding that the security guards forcibly dispersed the swelling crowd and rushed the badly injured girl to hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.

Police said they are investigating the incident to determine whether it was an accident or suicide.

Station House Officer of the Sector 39 Anil Kumar Shahi said, “We are scanning the CCTV grab to ascertain the cause of the death. We will be able to come to a conclusion only after we go through the entire CCCTV footage and question those present there at the time of the incident. We are also trying to reach the parents of the girl.”

Two of her male friends who were reportedly standing beside her at the time of the incident, reportedly ran away from the spot, said police.

The body has been sent to the district hospital for autopsy.

Cases of people committing suicide by jumping from Noida mall buildings have been reported earlier too.

In 2011, a BBA student had jumped to death from the roof of mall in Sector 18. In another such case, a 55-year-old retired Army Colonel had committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of a mall. A doctor had shot himself dead in the parking of Sector 27 mall.

Following these incidents, the district administration had asked mall owners to take precautionary steps, like placing nets on the empty spaces on the ground floor so that lives could be saved.

Initially, many complied with the orders but the nets were removed later as outer areas of the malls were not looking good to the patrons, said sources. “Shivani’s life could have been saved had these measures were in place,” said an official.