Excise official's DPS student son plunges to death from Indore high rise

INDORE : Class VIII student of Delhi Public School (DPS) Astik Khare mysteriously plunged to death from a high-rise building at premier Shalimar residential township in Lasudiya area here on Saturday afternoon.
The son of Jhabua district excise officer Manish Khare, the 13-year-old Astik, who resided in the adjacent Anurag Nagar colony was found lying unconscious below the ten-storeyed Premium Tower (PT-5) building at around 2.50 pm.
The township residents promptly informed the matter to Lasudiya police and the boy’s family, after which he was rushed by a 108 Ambulance to a hospital, where doctors declared him as brought dead, Lasudiya police station in-charge PS Ranawat said.
The footage of the CCTV camera installed at the PT-5 building entrance revealed that Astik hurried alone into the building at 2.44 pm after entering the premium township from the rear gate. Just after a few minutes, the DPS student was found lying under building, which comprises 40 flats.
Primary investigations into the matter revealed that out of the ten flats of the line below which Astik was found lying, only two houses were presently occupied by an elderly couple and another family. Rest eight flats were either locked or else labourers were engaged in furnishing work.
Investigations into the matter, including the questioning of residents of the concerned building, security personnel and residents of other buildings, clearly ruled out the possibility of anyone having pushed the boy from height, the Lasudiya police station in-charge said.
“We’re probing all other angles in the matter, including prospects of accidental death or remotest possibility of suicide by the school goer,” Ranawat added.
The police are questioning all concerned in the matter and the body’s autopsy will be done on Sunday.
Astik's uncle Abhishek Khare, however, feared foul play in the matter.
The incident has exposed the state of security at the premier township, with just one CCTV camera being installed at the building entrance and no third eye being present on the any of the ten floors of the PT-5 building.
A meritorious Class VIII student at DPS-Indore in Nipania locality, Astik regularly came to the township to play soccer with school mates Rudraksh and Rahul, besides other boys.
“Before coming to play soccer with us in the township’s rock garden, Astik gave us a phone call, but he didn’t ring us on Saturday afternoon before coming to the township from the back gate,” Astik’s friends who reside in the township told TOI.
Astik had to go to take French tuitions at private tuition classes in neighbouring Scheme-54 locality at 4 pm on Saturday, but much before that he plunged to death in the township mysteriously.
Astik was eldest of the two sons of Jhabua district excise officer Manish Khare. Astik’s younger brother Anuj is mentally challenged.