India, Aug. 22 -- An 18-year-old boy and both his parents died on Friday after a dispute over unpaid instalments on an iPhone escalated into a nearly three-hour standoff on a hilltop in Maharashtra, ending when the teenager and his father lost their balance and fell, and his mother jumped after them.

The teenager, identified by police as Kunal Chandgude, climbed Khavda Hill in the Tisgaon area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district at around 10 am after a heated argument at home with his father, Murlidhar Chandgude, 48, over the latest payment due on the phone.

His mother, Sangeeta Chandgude, followed him to the site, along with villagers, police personnel and fire brigade officials, who spent close to three hours trying to persuade him ...