Agra: Two days after an elderly French woman had a fatal fall from a high platform in the Fatehpur Sikri complex, another foreign tourist suffered minor injuries on Saturday afternoon when she slipped and fell on the platform.
According to Shakeel Chauhan, a senior tour guide, the foreigner, identified as 60-year-old Karvin, was part of a group of five Spanish tourists who had reached Fatehpur Sikri from Jaipur.
Near Badshahi Darwaza, the gate through Mughal emperors entered the monument complex, Karvin suddenly lost her footing and fell, Chauhan said, adding that she lost her consciousness for some time, probably due to the high humidity and heat in Fatehpur Sikri.
Her fellow tourists and guides sprinkled water on her face and she regained consciousness, but when she tried to get up after regaining consciousness, she could not do so and complained about having hurt her leg, the senior tour guide said.
He said that the tourist was feeling dizzy due to the injury caused by the fall and suspecting that she may have injured herself seriously, she was taken to Agra, about 40 km away, along with her co-travellers for medical aid.
ACP, Taj Security, Syed Arib Ahmed told ThePrint that MRI and X-ray were done and that the results were normal. “She has sustained a minor sprain in her leg due to the fall, which will hopefully heal soon with rest,” Ahmed said.
The tourist was later discharged and she returned with her group.
Meanwhile, the preliminary investigation conducted by the Agra administration into the reasons for the fall and the death of the French female tourist has found some glaring lapses on the part of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
When the inquiry team reached the site Friday where the mishap took place a day before, it was found that the railings installed by the ASI had a structural flaw that made it vulnerable to collapse under weight.
Only the lower part of the railing was fixed to the ground, using two brackets upon which the bottom of the railing rested. The rest of the railing was free and merely stuck between the pillars, said a member of the fact-finding team constituted on the order of Agra district magistrate Bhanu Chandra Goswami.
Due to this, the railing got uprooted when the French female tourist was getting her photo clicked while leaning against it and she fell down about 7 ft sustaining a fatal head injury, the member told ThePrint. The post-mortem report mentions that apart from the head, the female tourist had 12 other injuries on her body due to the fall.
Meanwhile, ASI superintending archaeologist Raj Kumar Patel claimed that since Fatehpur Sikri is a UNESCO world heritage monument, it was not possible to drill any hole in the walls to fix the railings into the pillars, which is why it was fixed into the ground using two supporting brackets.
The railing was sturdy and gave way under excessive weight when the tourists were taking selfies while leaning on it, he told ThePrint.
Built during the second half of the 16th century by emperor Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri was the capital of the Mughal Empire for only some 10 years, according to the UNESCO website. The complex of monuments and temples, all in a uniform architectural style, includes one of the largest mosques in India, the Jama Masjid, it adds.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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