Arvind and his younger brother, Hari Om, were climbing on and playing in front of two disused gates, which lead into a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) park, when the accident took place, according to residents.

Between 4 pm and 5 pm, Bhagwan Das, a potter working close to the park, “heard screams and a loud thud”. He rushed over “to find the boy lying on the floor bleeding, with the gate on top of him.” Das lifted the gate off Arvind, along with others who had reached the scene. “It wasn’t possible for one person to lift this gate alone,” said Krishna, who assisted Das. Todi Ram, Arvind’s father, took his son to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital. But an hour later, Arvind succumbed to his injuries.

Residents are angry that the MCD, responsible for the upkeep of its park gates, permitted the gate to persist in its faulty condition. “The hinges had been broken for at least a year and the gate was just propped up, an accident waiting to happen,” said Nand Kishore, adding he had voiced his complaint to MCD officials on several occasions. “The gate should have been repaired,” he said.

Officials have now removed the gate; villagers also want the remaining gate to be removed. But Vijender Gupta, MCD standing committee chairman, said: “Gates are necessary to maintain the parks, to keep out stray cattle and dogs.” He added that K S Mehra, MCD Commissioner, would launch an inquiry into the incident.

50-year-old Todi Ram, who sells clothes at the local market for his livelihood, has decided not to issue a complaint. “I have three other children to feed, I can’t keep running behind the MCD, courts and police,” he said. The police, however, have registered a case under Section 304A (death due to negligence). Meanwhile, relatives, friends and villagers congregated outside Ram’s house, comforting his visibly distraught wife. “She has not stopped crying since the tragedy took place,” said neighbour Ram Avtaar.