A promising student fell to his death from an East London tower block just minutes after attacking his girlfriend in a confused state after suffering an unexplained 'behavioural disturbance'. Nikhil Manglani, 21, is believed to have been suffering from aspects of an acute behavioural disturbance after becoming unwell at his flat in Canary Wharf although nobody knows why and there was no evidence of substance use or history of mental health problems.
Emergency services were called during the early hours of October 20, 2022 after his girlfriend fled to the concierge desk with "blood covering her face and a lump on her forehead". After police officers attended Nikhil's flat on the 31st floor of Talisman Tower, they discovered the balcony door open and his lifeless body on the ground.
Despite his girlfriend being under the impression he had consumed drugs and alcohol, after assuming that was the case due to his highly unusual behaviour, a toxicology report found that the masters student was sober and his family confirmed he had no prior history of mental health issues.
An inquest at Poplar Coroner's Court heard that Nikhil had recently completed his dissertation and had been actively applying for jobs while living in London. His girlfriend had been staying with him for a few weeks while awaiting her apartment to be ready, and the two had spent a "very normal" day together on October 19 and had gone for lunch.
After retiring to bed, his girlfriend woke up during the early hours to discover that the TV was on and Nikhil was behaving strangely. She told the court he kept standing up, removing his clothing and dropping items such as his Playstation.
While she added that his behaviour was "nothing dangerous, nothing scary, just weird", she began to be concerned after he repeatedly said he wanted to "get rid of this feeling". As a precaution, she hid any sharp objects such as knives and scissors in her clothes, although she remained at his side trying to comfort him and encouraging him to watch television.
After she placed his phone on charge, his "out of character" behaviour became more erratic and he started to scream while asking her for his mobile device. At this point, she claimed he jumped on her and attempted to strangle her, while she eventually was able to flee to the bathroom and called a friend.
Under the belief that Nikhil had come to his senses, she eventually reopened the door and was again allegedly assaulted. "I thought he'd realised what he did so I opened the door and he just jumped on me and is trying to strangle me, my friend on the phone could hear me screaming so she called the police."
She told the court that during this attack, she was shouting "it's me, it's me" while describing his behaviour as "totally out of character". After managing to escape, she fled to the building's reception to seek assistance.
Staff working at the concierge desk received a number of emails at around 4.43am from neighbours regarding Nikhil's flat, with reports of "shouting and commotion". Shortly after, his girlfriend arrived at the lower floor with "blood streaming down her face" and reported that her boyfriend had hit her.
Police were contacted and arrived at 4.59am where Nikhil's girlfriend confirmed that she had been assaulted, she had hidden the knives in the flat and her boyfriend was "acting very erratically and had taken a lot of drugs".
Officers attended the 31st floor and found the flat empty with the balcony door open. Nikhil's body was discovered with "catastrophic injuries" on the ground floor and he was pronounced dead by the London Ambulance Service at 5.30am.
However, despite his girlfriend's belief that he was under the influence of substances, a toxicology report found no evidence of drug abuse was detected. A post-mortem report gave his official cause of death as 1a) multiple injuries and 1b) blunt force trauma.
His dad, Lal Manglani, confirmed that Nikhil had no history of mental health issues and had that the family were "convinced" he was not suffering from depression at the time of his death. Describing them as a "close-knit family", Nikhil had spoken to his parents shortly before his death and had spent the summer travelling with them, and had given regular updates on his job interviews and studies.
Nikhil had never been aggressive prior to his death, and had been studying a masters degree in London after moving from Hong Kong. Giving her conclusion, Senior Coroner Mary Hassell said: "When I heard the circumstances of Nikhil's death, given his behaviour immediately before leaving the balcony I confessed I had expected the analysis to reveal drugs in his system.
“I thought that he might have taken cocaine or some other stimulant and I was very surprised when the toxicological analysis was negative for drugs and I agree that the features of this story don't fit together very well. There are some elements of this [on] which I can make a decision - I think it is highly, highly unlikely that anyone pushed Nikhil, he was on his own at the time.
"He was acting in a way that was very out of character, he was not suicidal and yet he left the balcony and apparently did so of his own volition. All the evidence points to him being alone at the time, if he had drugs in his system that would have provided the explanation.
"In fact some of the description with his girlfriend fitted with acute behavioural disturbance - often very hot, that is often brought about following the taking of drugs. It all pointed towards that, a person with acute behavioural disturbance can act in a way that's very uncharacteristic and I can believe they'd leave the 31st floor without any intention of taking their life.
"In the circumstances, the only appropriate conclusion for me to reach is to make an open verdict. It has concluded that there is insufficient evidence for me to say this was drug-related or an accident."
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