A three-year-old girl died after two loudspeakers installed for Republic Day celebrations fell on her in Mumbai’s Vikhroli area, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place in Ambedkar Nagar on Monday morning, when Republic Day was being celebrated. The child, identified as Janhavi Rajesh Sonkar, was playing on the street where the loudspeakers had been placed.
According to the police, a man carrying a bundle of used clothes walked past the spot. CCTV footage showed that the bundle got entangled in the wires connected to the sound system.
As a result, two box loudspeakers positioned on either side of the road fell on the child one after the other. An official from the Vikhroli police station said the sequence of events was clearly visible in the CCTV footage.
The child suffered fatal injuries and died on the spot.
Local residents alleged that the organisers of the Republic Day event had failed to ensure that the loudspeakers were installed safely in a public area where children and residents were moving about.
The police have registered an FIR against Vinod Parmar, the president of the local mandal that organised the event, and Sayyad Guran, the used clothes scrap dealer, under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Section 106, which deals with causing death by negligence.
Further investigation is underway, police said.