A 38-year-old man, who told his wife he was taking their two-year-old daughter downstairs to play in the park, jumped to his death from the 23rd floor of a residential tower in Joyville society in Sector 102 on Monday morning, carrying the toddler in his arms.It was around 7.30am when the father took his daughter to the terrace on the 23rd floor. Police said they received information around 8am and rushed to the spot. Both were taken to a nearby private hospital, where doctors declared them dead on arrival. The man had been living in the society for the past two years with his wife and their daughter.
The family, originally from Nangloi in Delhi, ran a public school in Kirari, which teaches students up to Class V. "The wife was in the kitchen preparing breakfast when her husband told her that he was taking their daughter out to play in the park. Soon after, residents heard a loud commotion near the tower and gathered outside," a senior officer was quoted by TOI as saying. Hearing the commotion, the wife also stepped out. When she reached the ground floor with other residents, she saw a man and a small child lying on the ground, both covered in blood. She later realised that they were her husband and daughter.
During questioning, the man’s brother told police that he had been suffering from health problems since the Covid pandemic, TOI reported. He had lost vision in one eye and his eyesight in the other eye had also become weak. Family members said he had been deeply disturbed because of his health condition. The couple got married in 2014. They often travelled to Delhi to manage their school and sometimes left their daughter with her grandparents.
The family has not made any allegations of foul play and did not file a complaint. The bodies were handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination, police was quoted by TOI as saying. However, police said they are still investigating the incident to understand why the man took the child with him before jumping. "The circumstances appear suspicious, which is why we have initiated an investigation," TOI quoted the officer as saying.