Residents of Paradise Apartment point out the spot where Puja fell. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, March 2: A teenaged domestic help fell from the terrace of a five-storey building in the Assam capital today and died just when police were trying to record her statement in hospital.

Puja Munda a.k.a. Mini, 17, had gone to the terrace of Paradise Apartment on Apurba Sinha Path to hang clothes out to dry. The incident occurred around 10.30am.

Investigators did not rule out either suicide or murder.

“The girl suffered critical injuries in the fall and was taken to GNRC Hospital. She passed away just when she was trying to tell us something,” a police officer investigating the case said. “The position in which her body lay on the ground after the fall does not suggest suicide.”

Puja was from Toujan, in Sonitpur district, and worked for Sanjay Kumar Mahanta, an employee of the state irrigation department. Mahanta and his wife were out when the incident occurred.

“We had gone to a relative’s place, leaving her (Puja) with my son and daughter when the incident happened,” Mahanta said.

The family stays in flat number B-2 on the second floor of the building.

“We came to know about the incident soon after it occurred. Although she was immediately taken to hospital, doctors could not save her,” the secretary of the building’s co-operative society, Utpal Talukdar, said.

The police officer said there were some questions that needed to be answered for investigators to wrap up the case. “The girl had gone to one portion of the terrace, but she fell from another portion. This portion was separated from the other side by a wall, which is difficult to climb across. Moreover, the wall around the roof makes an accidental fall almost impossible,” he said.

The body was sent for post-mortem and a case of unnatural death registered at Chandmari police station.