The police said Qurban on Saturday afternoon, while playing, accidentally entered the Tavera, which was among 20 vehicles seized.

MUMBAI: A four-year-old boy suffocated to death after he accidently locked himself in a seized stolen vehicle parked by the crime branch outside his house at Damodar Park in Ghatkopar, Mumbai.

The Mumbai police have registered an accidental death report and are probing the cause of death. "Due to a space crunch, the Mumbai police do not have a proper place to park seized stolen vehicles and hence had kept them at an under-construction site, where children from the vicinity play," said a police official.

The Vikhroli Parksite police are probing the exact cause of death. Sources said prima facie the post-mortem by Rajawadi hospital stated that Qurban Khan died of suffocation but the report has been reserved for further investigation. Reports said the boy was suffering for some time from pneumonia. Qurban is survived by his father, who works for a chartered accountant in south Mumbai, and three siblings.

The police said Qurban on Saturday afternoon, while playing, accidentally entered the Tavera, which was among 20 vehicles seized. The crime branch had last year arrested a gang of thieves who used to steal cars, alter the chassis and engine numbers and sell them.

The police said as the batteries of most of the seized vehicles had dried up, the boy who went inside to search for a ball got locked up and could not open the door. "The child was already weak and unwell. It was in the afternoon when the temperature inside the car may have been high due to the heat outside. He may have died due to breathlessness and suffocation," said another officer.

A two-year-old boy died inside a Tata Indica in Kamothe, Navi Mumbai, after he accidentally got locked in, in 2011. A three-year-old boy, while playing in a parked car in Nigdi, Pune, got locked inside due to the failure of the central locking system in 2015. He had died of suffocation.

