KOLKATA: An 87-year-old man in home isolation died after he fell 40ft below while attempting to climb down from the balcony of his third-floor Hazra Road apartment on Wednesday morning.
The rest of the family also had Covid symptoms, which made them stay in home isolation. But the elderly man apparently didn’t want to stay in confinement and tried to escape the captivity by climbing down the balcony.
The incident took place around 9.30am at the G+5 Siddharth Apartment where Nagindas Zavery lived with his son and his family in a 1,600 sq ft flat on the third floor. Witnesses said the elderly man had thrown cushions, mats and mattresses on the ground from above, which were removed by employees of a car showroom who thought the man had thrown the stuff in a fit of rage. Some time later, the man made a rope out of clothes and bedsheets and tried to climb down the balcony. He lost his grip and landed on a car before he fell on the ground and smashed his head. He was taken to a local hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
Speaking to TOI over phone, the man’s son said his father never wanted to stay in isolation and always looked for opportunities to head out, which they had stopped allowing since the son became Covid positive. “We had asked him not to head out for his own safety as well as the safety of others. I didn’t even think he could attempt something like climbing down,” said the son, a businessman at Burrabazar.
The building’s security guard, Sheikh Farukh, said barely two hours before the incident, the elderly man had gone out of the building. “He said he was feeling claustrophobic at home and was heading to a salon for a haircut. He was back by 8.30am and was having difficulty even walking till the lift. I helped him till his flat,” said Farukh.
Neighbours said by 9am, they heard some commotion from the flat. The elderly man was known for his short temper. Guards said he often used to pick up fights over trivial issues, seldom used to wear a mask and used to throw away sanitizers whenever guards insisted on applying it. As a result, when the man had thrown the mats and mattresses on the ground — presumably to make a cushion to support his fall — the employees of the car showroom removed them as it blocked their entrance.
But with the entire family in quarantine, neither the son nor his wife could take him to the hospital. Locals, along with cops, took him to the hospital.
Even cops couldn’t question the family properly to proceed with the investigation as they couldn’t risk entering the flat. The cops asked some questions from outside the flat and spoke in detail over the phone.