‘Missing’ senior citizen found dead under lift in Thane's Panchpakhadi

THANE: Two days after family of a senior citizen feared he had gone missing, the elderly was found dead under the elevator of his eight-storyed building in Panchpakhadi area of Thane late on Friday evening, informed police.
Police officials said the senior citizen stayed on the third floor of Jaee building in Raigad Aali locality, and had gone to attend a pre-marriage function of a neighbour on the ground floor of the same building late Wednesday.
“Initial investigations hint the man was on his way back home when he must have accidentally opened the grill door and slipped inside the duct when the lift was at a higher floor. His family initially suspected he stayed back late at the neighbours’ to enjoy but when he didn’t return the following morning, they approached the police,” informed Avinash Sawant, chief at the regional disaster management cell, Thane.
Neighbours and family were desperately searching for him, unaware that he was lying lifeless under the same lift which they were using for two days. In the meantime, a few neighbours complained of foul smell emanating from inside the lift duct on Friday evening and alerted the Naupada police and civic rescue officials who then found the man crouched motionless near the base.
The corpse was retrieved from the duct and sent to the hospital, where he was declared dead, informed civic officials.