Pune: Talegaon Dabhade police have registered a case against members of the Nisarga housing society in the area and individuals from a private firm responsible for elevator maintenance, after a 33-year-old man died when a lift plunged from the sixth floor in the complex in Dec last year.The lift crash occurred on Dec 6, 2025. The victim, identified as society resident Dinesh Surange, suffered multiple fractures and succumbed to his critical injuries a day later, on Dec 7, 2025.Nearly four months after the victim’s death, his brother Ritesh Surange, who lives in the Kiwale area of Pimpri Chinchwad, lodged a complaint with the police on March 28, 2026, based on which a case has been registered.According to the police, Surange was trapped inside the lift after it developed a technical snag and got stuck between the sixth and seventh floors. While society members and neighbours were attempting to rescue him, the lift cable snapped, causing it to crash to the ground. Surange, who was still stuck inside, suffered severe injuries in the fall.Senior police inspector Kanhaiya Thorat of the Talegaon Dabhade police informed that Surange was leaving for work around 9am when the incident occurred. The deceased, a native of Buldhana district, was a tenant in one of the flats in the society, which comprises around eight large towers. He was employed with a private firm in Talegaon Dabhade and lived with his wife. At the time of the incident, his wife, who is pregnant, had gone to her parents’ house, he said.After the death, the family was in trauma, and approached the police after a few months. The police made enquiries among residents to establish negligence, whereupon one resident came forward to say that they had also been stuck in the lift before, and others too had faced problems with it. However, despite raising these grievances, the society management had failed to take action in the matter. The statement was recorded and the first information report (FIR) was filed, said the police.“We have booked the society’s chairman, secretary and those responsible for lift maintenance for negligence,” said Thorat, adding that a total of 11 people have been booked in the case.The police have invoked sections 106 (1), 125 (a), 125 (d), 289 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), related to charges of causing death by negligence, reckless endangerment of life or safety, negligent conduct with machinery and common intention, in the FIR.
