Maharashtra Teen Jumps To Death From Hill As Mother Refuses To Buy Phone

A 16-year-old boy jumped to death from a hill in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Sunday after his mother refused to buy him a mobile phone.

The boy, identified as Atharva Gopal Tayde, was asking his mother to buy him a phone for days. However, she refused every time.

Atharva was preparing for the police recruitment examination, officials said.

On Sunday, Atharva asked his mother again to buy a phone. But when his mother refused, he went to a hill in Tisgaon and jumped. Locals immediately rushed him to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Maharashtra witnessed a similar incident last year when a 15-year-old boy died by suicide after his mother refused to get him a mobile phone on his birthday. The boy, Vishwajeet Ramesh Chamdanwale, died at his house while his mother and sister were asleep, officials said. In July last year, an 18-year-old boy died by suicide in Navi Mumbai after his father did not buy him an expensive iPhone. According to his father, the boy wanted an iPhone costing about Rs 1.5 lakh. When his father bought him a low-cost Vivo phone, he got depressed.