Boy falls to death from 7-storey building

Of foreign origin, Allan, a  student of Akshara International School in Yelahanka, missed his school bus when he was arguing with his mother, Sandra, over what he wanted in his lunch box. Sources close to the family said while Allan wanted a burger, his mother thought he should carry something else.

Losing her son, who was born to the couple eight years after their marriage, under tragic circumstances has left Sandra shell-shocked. She could hardly speak when the police reached Imperial Court, the high-rise building on Cunningham Road where they lived.

Upset with Sandra for not giving him burgers, Allan is said to have screamed at her. Minutes later, Allan, who had calmed down by then, went down but found that he had missed the school bus. Dejected, the boy returned home and told Sandra that he had missed the bus. At that time, Sandra, who was in the bathroom, told him to study.

Disregarding Sandra’s instruction, the boy, with a ball in hand, took the elevator from the fourth floor and went to the terrace, which was protected by a railing. Moments later, Allan fell in a free fall. Death was instantaneous as the skull took the impact of the fall. The driver of a car belonging to one of the Imperial Court residents caught a glimpse of Allan falling from the top. But before he could reach the spot, Allan’s body had gone limp; his head was smashed and bleeding profusely.

A few other security guards and residents reached the spot as the driver shouted for help. Allan was declared dead after he was rushed to a hospital in a car.

A security guard told Deccan Herald: “When I rushed to inform Allan’s mother of the accident, she ran out, but by that time it was too late. At the hospital, she went numb when the doctors declared Allan dead.”

The Barrazas live in the fourth-floor flat at Imperial Court where decades back a married woman had jumped from the terrace to her death. Allan’s father is a businessman and consulting professor who lives in Germany but keeps visiting India. He is on his way from Germany after being informed of Allan’s death.

A few of Allan’s friends, who had attended cooking classes with him at Imperial Court, said though a little heavy-set, he was good in sports and was of a very friendly disposition. “He was proud of his parents and would repeatedly say he was born to them eight years after their marriage,” one of Allan’s friends said.

The police suspect the boy might have bent over the railing and lost control. The parapet, made of tin sheet, gave way when it could not take his weight.

“If it was a concrete parapet, the boy could have survived,” an officer said. The police have found a pair of scissors near the body and are trying to find out whether it has any links with the boy’s death. Allan’s body has been kept at the Bowring Hospital mortuary. Akshara International School, where Allan was in Class XI, held a memorial service and declared Thursday a half-day.