New Delhi: It’s a good spot for “selfies”, Ayushi Kumar had once told her mother about the terrace of a 13-storeyed building in the heart of Delhi that houses over two dozen Members of Parliament. That same terrace is where Ayushi allegedly jumped from to her death earlier this month, raising questions that remain unanswered to this day.
Police say that the 20-year-old allegedly jumped from that terrace on the night of 20 August, leaving behind a voice note she recorded for her parents but never sent. That recording, now being treated as a suicide note, has been sent for forensic examination.
Ayushi lived with her parents and a younger brother in the jhuggi (slum) at Dhobi Ghat on Talkatora Road, not far from the MPs Awas Apartments on Pandit Pant Marg.
But a number of critical questions surrounding Ayushi’s death still remain unanswered — how did she gain access to the building and could she be saved had someone seen or heard her walking to the terrace?
According to the Delhi Police, Ayushi was seen entering the building using the main entrance on 20 August.
Footage retrieved from a CCTV camera on the 13th floor shows her exiting the lift, clad in a white kurta and black pants, using her phone and walking towards the door leading to the terrace.
Her body was later found in a pool of blood on the ground floor. Ayushi’s shoes and mobile phone were recovered from the terrace.
A PCR call was made to the North Avenue police station around 9.15 pm, informing the police about a woman having suffered a “fatal fall”.
Asked about the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), New Delhi, Amrutha Guguloth said Ayushi’s parents have ruled out any “suspicion” of foul play and that the autopsy report says she suffered blunt trauma as a result of falling from a height.
Police have recorded the parents’ statements and the spot has been inspected by the crime team and a forensics team, DCP Guguloth told ThePrint. “CCTV footage from the apartment [complex] has been obtained in which she [Ayushi] is seen going alone inside the building and on the rooftop,” she added.
Prima facie, it appears that the deceased was under some “financial stress” but what drove her to take the extreme step is yet to be ascertained, DCP Guguloth said.
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Never saw her before, claim guards
“She entered the building through the main entrance and took the lift to the terrace,” said a senior police officer familiar with the case. “Apparently the guards let her go upstairs,” said another officer.
When ThePrint visited the complex last week, two guards were stationed at gate number two of Ganga Yamuna Saraswati society. One guard was sitting on a chair, and another sat inside a kiosk. While this is the route most used to enter Yamuna apartments, no record of vehicles is maintained at the main gate.
No one stopped this reporter from entering the MPs Awas Apartment.
“We have no orders to maintain an entry register. Even if we try to ask, no one really cooperates. They ask us to show order, so now we have let it be,” said one of the guards who did not wish to be named.
“When the police asked the staff, they couldn’t fully tell how she accessed the building. No one knows,” said another guard stationed at the main gate.
The spot where Ayushi fell on the ground floor of Yamuna apartment is located beside a back door used by delivery valets and sanitary workers, among others. That door has since been locked.
Eight guards work in the building in shifts but none could remember seeing Ayushi that day despite having three TV screens at the reception of Yamuna apartment with live CCTV feed.
The reception of the Yamuna apartment has two lifts guarded by security guards. One of these lifts, reserved for MPs, was the one Ayushi used to reach the 13th floor that day.
Asked if she had made an entry in the register maintained at the reception, one of the guards ThePrint spoke to said he couldn’t recall, adding that registers are submitted to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) once they are filled.
According to staff members, the 13-storeyed Yamuna Apartment houses at least 26 MPs, “They [MPs] come and go. More often, associates, PAs [personal assistants], MPs’ staff and also their relatives come here,” said one staff member.
Maintenance staff, along with guards stationed at the entrance and reception said they had never seen Ayushi before.
Her family, however, claim that the fateful night was not the first time she visited the building. She had been to the building multiple times in the past to click selfies and record Instagram reels on the terrace, they said.
‘She never told us about any troubles’
According to sources in the Delhi Police, there was mention of her family’s financial conditions in the voice note recovered from Ayushi’s cell phone.
“Her father works at a mobile repairing shop, her brother is in school, and her mother is a homemaker. She was also looking for a job and wasn’t employed anywhere,” said one source.
Ayushi had been “duped earlier” by a former East Delhi-based employer who shut shop without paying her dues, the source added.
Her parents, after having seen the CCTV footage, have — to some extent — accepted that Ayushi ended her own life. What they cannot understand though, is what drove her to take the extreme step.
Family members remember her as someone who loved taking selfies and recording Instagram reels. Sources said Ayushi, who had studied till Class 10, was between jobs.
Her father Rakesh Kumar said she had told him about getting a job at a tattoo parlour in Connaught Place just 15 days ago. He, however, did not know the name of the tattoo parlour or what she was promised as salary.
“She had no illness. She never told us about any troubles. In fact, when she got the job, she came home very excited. That day [20 August], too, she left home around 10 am. There appeared no reason for us to be careful,” he told ThePrint, holding back tears.
The mother, Alka Kumar, has been bedridden since the incident and refuses to speak to anyone about it. The father says he is trying to hold on but breaks down when asked about that day.
Ayushi usually returned home from work around 7 pm, said her father, adding that the family got concerned after she failed to answer multiple calls on 20 August.
According to the father, he had gone to Connaught Place to look for Ayushi when he received a call from the police, asking him to hurry to the apartment complex in central Delhi. The mother informed him later that Ayushi had been to that same building a number of times in the past.
“She had told her mother: selfie achi aati hai wahan pe (it’s a good spot for selfies),” Rakesh said, adding: “It’s only after her death that I came to know that she would go there. But she never went at night. Only during the day.
“Her mother told me that she had been going there to click selfies and make reels for more than a year.”
If you are feeling suicidal or depressed, please call a helpline number in your state.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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