Argument on dating heats up, 16-year-old boy pushes friend to death from Mumbai building

The police have registered a murder case against a minor boy after he allegedly pushed to death a 15-year-old girl from the terrace of a building in Mumbai and tried to pass it off as a suicide, an official said.

The 16-year-old accused and the victim were friends. The girl was a student of an international school and resided with her mother in the Mulund area. On June 24, the girl arrived at a housing society in Bhandup (West) area to meet the boy and discussed her academic stress with him, the Bhandup police official said on Tuesday. The boy then took her atop a water tank on the terrace of the building's D-wing. While they were chatting, their conversation turned into a heated argument about dating, the official said.

During the argument, the boy allegedly pushed the girl, causing the teenager to fall to her death from the building, he said. The boy subsequently threw the girl's mobile phone from the terrace, which landed near the building's e-wing. A security guard spotted the girl's body in the duct area and alerted the police.

During the investigation, the boy told the police that the girl had committed suicide by jumping from a window between the 30th and 31st floors due to study-related stress, the official said. After examining the building's CCTV footage, the police detained the boy who later confessed to the crime, the official said. A case on charges of murder was registered against the boy on Monday night and he was sent to a juvenile detention centre in Dongri, the police said.