CHENNAI: In a freak accident, a five-and-a-half-year-old girl suffered fatal injuries after a sliding iron gate at a clothing store building in Kilpauk fell on her due to a mechanical error on Saturday night when a security guard allegedly tried to close it. The girl was rushed to a nearby government hospital for treatment where she succumbed to her injuries later in the night.
The Kilpauk police arrested security guard Sampath (65) and building manager Srinivasan (63) on Sunday under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC and remanded them in judicial custody. A police source said when the guard tried to close the gate at the complex on Harley’s Road in Kilpauk, it failed to stop at the stop point due to a mechanical error and its wheels got off the track.
As it kept moving, it came out of its fitting and fell on the girl who was standing near the gate outside the building and the girl suffered severe injuries to her head. The complex has an entry gate, an exit gate and another one in between the two.
The victim S Harini Sree’s father Shankar worked as a valet parking driver at the complex. The family resides at Nammalwarpet near Purasawalkam. A police source said the Class I student and her mother Vani would visit the place every day on a two-wheeler to pick up Shankar and return home.
‘Gate came out of fittings’
She would be playing in and around the building while waiting for her father to finish work.
“Around 9.15 pm on Saturday, Harini Sree was playing near one of the central gates of the building when the guard tried to close it.
As he pushed the gate, the gate failed to stop at the stopping point, kept rolling, came out of its fittings, and fell on the girl,” police said. Passersby rushed to her to the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. She succumbed to her injuries at the hospital around 12:45 am on Sunday. The body was sent for postmortem.