Six-year-old killed as bench falls on him

HYDERABAD:  A six-year-old playing on a park bench was killed after it toppled on him, in a gated community in Rajendranagar. CCTV footage shows the child took a few steps after the bench was removed, but he collapsed soon after. A nearby private hospital declared him brought dead.

The incident happened at Janapriya Utopia apartments on Thursday evening, when the child, Divit Sharma, was playing in the park with his elder brother and his friends. As the other children started playing cricket, Divit sat on a nearby cement bench, which was not affixed to, but merely resting on its frame.
As a result, the bench moved when he sat down, and the child started playing on it by rocking the bench. However, the structure suddenly toppled on the boy, leaving him seriously injured.

The other children and a group of adults at the parked rushed to Divit’s and removed the bench, after which he stood up and tried to walk.Residents of the gated community blamed the management for the mishap. “If the management was prompt in maintaining the bench, this would not have happened and the boy would have been alive,” they said.

The Janapriya Utopia management, meanwhile, said there was no negligence on their part. The bench was installed by a group of elderly persons, under the umbrella of Senior Citizens Association, against the apartment rules, they claimed.

The sub-inspector from Rajendranagar police station, Balaraj, said prima-facie a case has been registered under Section 174 of the CrPC and further investigations are underway.

To helplessly watch his six-and-a-half-year-old brother bleed after a bench fell on him, with neighbours and apartment staff too standing haplessly, was an heart-wrenching experience for the 12-year-old as well as those who gathered around the duo.

Navodit Sharma, whose younger brother Divit was injured and ultimately succumbed to the injuries, ran to his sibling’s rescue as soon as the bench fell on him.With their mother was at home and father away at office, the sight of Navodit helplessly sitting beside his bleeding brother brought tears to other residents in the apartment complex.

Divit is the younger son of Bishan Sharma, a techie, and Pragati Sharma, a housewife. The couple, natives of Noida, has been living in the city for more than a decade with Bishan working with an MNC here.
Though Divit was born in their native, he was brought up in Hyderabad. But it was their ill luck that their child lost his life in the same city.

“He was closer to his brother and mother than me. He was sleeping when I left for office. But I returned home to hear this devastating news. We had so many plans for his future, but what do they matter now,” Bishan recalled.