19-year-old's 'please save me' call from PG rubble was family's only thread of hope before rescue
New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) A frantic phone call from beneath the rubble — “please save me” — was all 20-year-old Aditya could manage as he lay trapped under the debris of a collapsed building in southwest Delhi, hoping someone rescues him in time.
It was a harrowing four-hour wait for someone who had only four days ago moved into the paying guest accommodation in Satya Niketan that collapsed on Sunday, killing seven people and injuring several others.
A first-year BCom student from Bihar, Aditya called his sister in Patna around 2 pm on Sunday, shortly after the five-storey structure collapsed.
“I am trapped in the debris. I have somehow called from my phone and my battery is about to die. Please save me,” he told his sister, according to his father Raju Kumar.
Aditya survived and is currently undergoing treatment at AIIMS, but his family is questioning why it took nearly four hours to rescue him despite the fact that he was conscious and able to communicate with them from beneath the debris.
“He had barely been living in this PG for four days. He was living on the top floor and hence after the collapse he did not get too deep into the debris, which I think is the reason why my son survived,” Raju told PTI.
The building, which housed a boys' paying guest accommodation near Delhi University's South Campus, collapsed around 1.30 pm on Sunday while repair work was underway. Twelve people have been taken out from the decades-old structure, of whom seven died, while several others were injured.
Aditya had arrived in Delhi around two months ago and had initially been living in Laxmi Nagar. He had moved to the Satya Niketan accommodation only four days before the collapse.
His father, who works at the post office in Patna, said the family was initially relieved to receive the call from Aditya, but the relief quickly turned into anguish as they waited for him to be brought out.
“He called and said 'my building has collapsed. I am trapped in the debris. I have somehow called from my phone and my battery is about to die. Please save me,” Raju recalled.
Despite remaining conscious and repeatedly shouting for help, Aditya was rescued almost four hours later, his father said.
“I am not able to understand why it took them so long to get him out. He was on the top floor and conscious enough to make the call. Luckily, my son did not die, but what about those beneath him?” Raju said.
As he waited to be rescued, Aditya also recorded a video from inside the debris, offering a glimpse of the terrifying conditions in which he and at least one other person were trapped.
In the video, blood can be seen streaked across the side of a student's dust-covered face as he lay in a cramped pocket beneath slabs of concrete. His clothes and face are covered in cement and dust as his phone camera captures the suffocating space around him.
The video was reportedly circulated in an Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College student group.
Police have registered a case against the building owner and others, while a magisterial inquiry has also been ordered. The owner of the building, identified as Hariram Gupta, was apprehended from Rajasthan's Bhiwadi area on Monday.
