The lift crashing down and injuring five people on Friday has again put the Garuda Mall in the ‘spotlight’.

According to sources, only two lifts operate in the mall from the basement to the top floors after 9 pm. This is bound to put pressure on moviegoers who, after parking their vehicles, are in a hurry to enter the hall before the movie begins.

The mall has seven lifts, including a service lift and two capsule lifts, of which five lifts and more than half a dozen escalators go off after 9 pm. Only ‘Himalaya’ and ‘Yadavgiri’ lifts operate from the parking area to Inox screens.
Deccan Herald conducted a reality check on Sunday night and learnt many moviegoers lacked patience to wait for their turn or take the stairs to the ground floor and use other lifts.

The Himalaya lift, which crashed, is still under repair. According to sources, lifts do not crash due to overweight.
A senior security guard said moviegoers arrive late and ‘pounce’ upon the lift operator to ‘take off’ fast. When he tries to stop them from entering the lift, the public force him to “mind his business”. This is what happened on Friday night.

Meanwhile, sources confirmed the mall authorities are contemplating lodging a counter-complaint against Amit Bagaria, one of the victims, for allegedly threatening the mall authorities that he would “put them in their place”.
Ashok Nagar Police have begun the process of recording the statements.