JOIN USA 70-year-old woman died after being stuck in a moving elevator that dragged her for six floors at an apartment in east Delhi’s Vasundhara Enclave area on Thursday morning.
While she sustained grievous injuries, police said a cardiac arrest appears to have caused her death.
The woman Satya Gupta, a resident of Abhimanyu Apartments, had been to a walk in a park in the morning. She returned at about 10:30 am to take the lift. She pressed the elevator button but the lift stopped a few inches short of the base of the shaft instead of grounding itself.
She chose to enter the faulty lift, but just as she was entering, another resident on the sixth floor pressed the button.
As a result, the doors of the lift closed prematurely, leaving the woman’s leg stuck in between.
She was dragged all the way to the sixth floor of the building in the same condition. While attempting to rescue herself, she also sustained injuries to her head.
She was finally rescued on the sixth floor and rushed to a nearby hospital where she died moments after being admitted to the emergency ward.
“What exactly caused her death can be ascertained only after post-mortem reports arrive. But it appears she died of panic and subsequent heart attack. In any case, her body was too weak to survive after such injuries,” a senior police officer told Deccan Herald.
The victim’s family has told police in their complaint that the lift was not repaired despite several complaints by the residents.
“They have said that many people had been stuck in the lift in the past too. We are investigating if there was any negligence,” said another police officer.
Police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and of negligence while dealing with machinery. Satya had been living in the apartment with her family for the past several years.