Five die in wall collapse, electrocution in Delhi rain

A ferocious thunderstorm that swept through Delhi early Friday morning left at least five people dead, with one family left entirely shattered – a woman and her three young children, the youngest of whom was seven months old, were crushed when their single-room dwelling collapsed under the weight of fallen trees in Jafarpur Kalan, west Delhi.

In another tragedy, a 25-year-old construction worker was electrocuted in Green Park after he, in an attempt to take cover from the storm, accidentally touched an iron gate charged by a broken overhead wire during the storm.

Jyoti Devi, 28, and her children Aryan (7), Rishabh (5), and seven-month-old Priyansh were found dead under the debris of their collapsed home, said Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh.

Her husband, Ajay Kumar, sustained injuries but survived. The couple had moved into the makeshift brick-and-sand structure on a farm just weeks earlier, after returning from their village in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya.

Police said that their control room received a call at 5.26am regarding a collapse, and when rescuers reached the spot, they found that a tree had fallen over a room. Under the debris, police said, Devi and three kids were recovered unresponsive, but Kumar had survived and was briefly taken to a hospital.

By 3pm, Kumar had been discharged and he was at a mortuary for legal proceedings and postmortem of his wife and kids. He barely spoke – his hands and back still carrying the bruises from the incident.

“The room wasn’t meant for living— it was only made using sand, it had no cement. It stood on the roots of an old Neem tree,” said Sunil Kumar, Ajay’s cousin. “It couldn’t have survived a storm like this.” The family had returned on April 8 to get Aryan and Rishabh admitted to school. The admissions had gone through just two days before the storm hit.

Ajay, who had come to Delhi about 20 years ago, was working on the farm for several years. On Friday afternoon, he left for his native village with the bodies of his wife and children after postmortem formalities.

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta expressed grief and announced an ex-gratia payment of ₹25 lakh to Ajay Kumar.

“The news of the tragic death of four members of a family and injury to one person due to falling of a tree during heavy storm and rain in Kharkhadi Nahar village, Najafgarh is extremely distressing… The Delhi government stands with the victim’s family in this difficult time,” she said.

Meanwhile, in Green Park, Ankit Singh, a construction worker from Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, was electrocuted around 4.30am as he attempted to take shelter from the storm. According to police, a low-tension overhead wire broke and electrified an iron gate at the under-construction site. As Singh tried to escape the storm, he grabbed the gate and was fatally shocked. Other workers managed to flee the area safely.

A case has been registered under BNS sections 290 (negligent conduct w.r.t constructing buildings) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence).

DCP (southwest) Surendra Choudhary said, “As per our enquiry, the main gate of an under-construction plot became electrically charged due to a broken overhead wire from the colony’s main power supply. The overhead wire was damaged in the storm. The victim had taken shelter near the main gate to protect himself from the rain.”

In a third incident in Chhawla, Dwarka, a wall collapsed during the storm, injuring Om Prakash, 41, his son Love, 13, and nephew Sonu, 15. All three were treated and discharged, officials said.

In a fourth incident in New Kondli, 17-year-old Khushbu Lal suffered injuries when a cemented shed collapsed on her as she was sleeping. Her father rushed her to LBS Hospital, and she is reported to be stable.

Former sprinter saved

Meanwhile, in Shahpur Jat, a former national-level sprinter narrowly escaped disaster. At 5am, Sangeeta Kumar, once a 100m Delhi champion who claimed to have raced with PT Usha, awoke to the sound of creaking walls. She rushed to grab her two children, just before a tree toppled onto their two-storey house, damaging the back wall. Her husband, Krishan Kumar, was briefly feared trapped under the debris but managed to escape.

“We knew this would happen,” she said. “That tree had termites, it was leaning dangerously close to the house. We complained, but nothing was done.”