A loving family of three has been wiped out in one of the most heartbreaking tragedies imaginable after a teenage son's demand for a new iPhone spiralled into a devastating cliff-top drama.
Shocking footage circulating online shows the final, agonising moments as 18-year-old Kunal Chandgude stood on the edge of a 400- 500 ft cliff in Maharashtra, India, while his parents begged him for hours to step back to safety.
The argument that sparked the catastrophe is said to have begun over a high-end mobile phone – either a refusal to buy him a new iPhone or disputes over EMI payments for one he already had. Whatever the exact trigger, the consequences were catastrophic.
On Friday morning, Kunal made his way to Khavdya Dongar (also known as Khavdya Hill) near Tisgaon in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. He positioned himself on the precarious rocky edge of the steep drop and refused to move.
His parents, father Murlidhar, 48, and mother Sangeeta, around 42, rushed to the scene after learning of his threat. They were joined by villagers, the local sarpanch, police officers and fire brigade crews who frantically tried to talk him down.
For nearly three hours, the desperate negotiations continued. Firefighters even attempted to position safety nets below the cliff, but Kunal kept shifting along the edge, frustrating their efforts.
Tisgaon sarpanch Sanjay Jadhav, who was among those pleading with the teenager, later described the scene. "We kept telling him to think of his mother and not take such a step," he said. In a bid to calm him, Jadhav even offered to provide an iPhone himself. But Kunal remained resolute. "There is no solution now. There is only one solution," the young man reportedly replied.
His mother Sangeeta is said to have made emotional appeals, at one point even offering to leave her husband and stay with her son if he would only come away from the edge.
Then, in a moment of pure horror captured on video, father Murlidhar moved closer in a last-ditch attempt to pull his son to safety. Witnesses say the pair lost their footing – or that Kunal jumped as his father grabbed for him – and both plummeted to their deaths.
Moments later, the devastated mother, who had just watched her husband and only surviving son vanish over the edge, herself jumped from the cliff. All three died within minutes of each other around 1 pm.
The viral footage of the family's final ordeal has left viewers across India and beyond in tears. Police recovered the bodies from the difficult terrain below and launched an investigation.
While early reports focused heavily on the phone dispute, officers have since indicated deeper family tensions may have played a role. Kunal, a bright NEET aspirant who scored over 90% in his Class X exams, had previously threatened to jump from the same cliff in 2025 after a similar argument over an iPhone. He was counselled by police and returned home on that occasion.
An aunt of the teenager has publicly rejected claims that the iPhone alone caused the tragedy, urging people to stop spreading unverified stories as the family grapples with unimaginable grief. The family had already lost an elder son years earlier.
Locals have long regarded the isolated hill as a notorious suicide spot, with multiple deaths reported there over the years.
What began as a family quarrel over a smartphone has left three people dead, a community in mourning, and a nation asking how a dispute over a phone could end in such total devastation.The full circumstances continue to be examined by investigators.
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