The case was lodged on the basis of a complaint from the toddler’s mother
Mumbai: Four days after an 18-month-old toddler was allegedly pushed to her death down the stairwell from the sixth floor of a Goregaon building, Dindoshi police on Sunday registered an FIR for murder against her 10-year-old neighbour. Soon after the death, police had produced the 10-year-old before Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which said the girl would have to undergo counselling and appointed an NGO for the purpose. After police checked the CCTV footage, it was found that the 10-year-old girl had gestured at my daughter and summoned her towards the lift,” the mother said in her statement to police. She said after her daughter went to her, the 10-year-old lifted her and threw her down the stairwell near the lift. Under the law, children under seven are completely excluded from being prosecuted under criminal law, and those between the ages of 7 and 12 are excluded only if the court thinks that they did not understand the consequence of their actions.
The girl was released in the care of her parents. “The security railing on the sixth floor is about three-and-a-half feet tall and my daughter couldn’t have lost her balance and fallen off it.
Sources said the family left the housing society and moved in with relatives. “She then ran away… It appears she understood the gravity of her actions. Police initially recorded an accidental death case.
The 10-year-old and her family had moved into the housing society only a fortnight before the death.