Mum and two kids jump to death in Malad

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/20110309201103090330054533d344c6e/What-horror-pushed-malad-mom-to-this.html

What horror pushed malad mom to this?

A day before her 11th wedding anniversary, 31-year-old Nidhi Gupta went up to the 19th floor of her building with her two kids. After flinging seven-year-old Gaurav and three-year-old Mahika down, Nidhi jumped to her death. No one knows why…

Nazia Sayed
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Posted On Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 03:30:05 AM

Malad woman kills self, kids

Suicide note says nobody to be blamed, police say the woman’s parents probably know about the trigger



As Nidhi Gupta, 31, entered the elevator on the 9th floor of Sahyadri Housing Complex in Malad at around 8.20 am on Tuesday with her seven-year-old son Gaurav and three-year-old daughter Mahika, the operator was a little surprised.

He knew Nidhi dropped Mahika to her school bus around this time, but Gaurav went to school only around afternoon.


Also, the lift was headed up. “I told her, madam lift upar ja rahi hai.” Nidhi’s replied - “Mujhe bhi upar hi jana hai.”

Less than ten minutes later, Nidhi, a chartered accountant and a teacher of accountancy at Ghanshyamdas Saraf College of Arts and Commerce, pushed her son and daughter down the 19th floor of the buiding, and then jumped herself.

The residents of the building rushed the three to Sanjeevni, a private nursing home in Malad (east). They were all declared ‘dead on arrival.’

What was going on in Nidhi’s mind when she was going up in the elevator does not find mention in the suicide note she left in a cupboard in her ninth-floor apartment.


Nidhi Gupta, 31years Gaurav, 7 years Mahika, 3 years

It simply says that nobody should be held responsible for her and the children’s death.

Her mother, whom Nidhi called on Monday night, her last call, may have an answer. But on Tuesday, she was too shocked to talk.

Nidhi’s father, stock trader Bimal Jalan, too most likely knows what pushed his daughter, who would have celebrated her 11th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, to kill her children and then herself.

“Please, not now...I will speak but not now. I am not mentally ready,” he said when contacted late on Tuesday. “She was a fighter...she would not commit suicide,” he added.

The kids fell near this spot after they were thrown off by their mother Nidhi Gupta

Her neighbours also know a few things, but nothing conclusive. One neighbour, who did not wish to be identified, said there were fights between Nidhi and her husband, Pawan Gupta, 33, who deals in ready-made garments.

“We often heard loud voices from the apartment,” he said. There were also whispers that Nidhi was being pressured to get her father to invest in her husband’s business. This, however, could not be confirmed independently.

The only eye-witness, apart from the elevator operator, building supervisor James Gonsalvis, who saw the bodies first, said there was no time to react.

“I was in the basement when I heard a loud thud. I ran up and saw Gaurav lying motionless.

Cops look at the fire refuge area from where Nidhi jumped (R) Guptas’ neighbours in Sahyadri Housing Complex

Even before I could raise an alarm, Mahika fell not far from where her brother was lying, followed by their mother who fell on the periphery wall. “There was a gap of less than 30 seconds between the three plunging down,” Gonsalvis said.

Later in the day, as the cops inspected the 19th-floor fire refuge area of the buiding, from where Nidhi pushed the two kids and then jumped herself, they found Mahika’s tiger-striped, orange satchel unzipped, a lunch box containing fresh sandwiches and a plastic container half filled with milkshake.

Nidhi’s slippers and mobile phone also lay nearby, indicating that she had climbed onto the railing to throw her children over.

Nidhi (seen with Mahika in a file picture) first threw down her son Gaurav (right), followed by Mahika

Downstairs, in their three-bedroom apartment, Nidhi’s sister-in-law, Sunita, told cops that they all had their breakfast together.

“Nidhi then said she would drop Mahika to the bus and return. She asked Gaurav to accompany her. We had no idea what was going on in her mind,” she said.

Nidhi, her husband and children shared the apartment with her brother-in-law (her husband’s elder brother), his wife, their two children and her in-laws.

Nidhi’s father Bimal

On Monday morning, everybody was home. Nidhi’s husband, Pavan, has told cops there were no problems between them.

Additional Police Commissioner (north) Ramrao Pawar said, “We have spoken to Gonsalves, the witness.

A suicide note left by Nidhi mentioned nobody is responsible for her action. We will question Nidhi’s parents when they are willing to talk to us.”