In a shocking incident, a 50-year-old school teacher died after jumping off the Atal Setu, an officer said on Sunday, February 16.
He died by suicide at Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), the country’s longest sea bridge linking south Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
The incident took place on Friday morning, February 14, near Ulwe, close to the Nhava Sheva end of the bridge.
With this, total number of such cases have reached to six within a year of its operation.
The victim, who is a resident of Alibaug in Raigad district in Maharashtra, was allegedly harassed over a loan.
According to police, the teacher had borrowed money through an instant loan app the previous month to settle some debts and was struggling to repay an outstanding amount of INR 12,000.
Also Read: Maharashtra Tops In Suicide, Cyberbullying & Stalking Cases
His family informed the police that, unable to pay, he had been receiving calls from the loan app's recovery agents over the past week, who allegedly threatened to publicly shame him, PTI reported.
They also claimed that the agents had circulated morphed images of the primary school teacher among his contacts and in WhatsApp groups.
The police said the man drove to the Atal Setu, got out of his car, and jumped into the waters below. Surveillance camera footage captured the moment, prompting police to launch a search operation. His body was discovered the following day near Nhava creek in Navi Mumbai, approximately 12 kilometres from where he had jumped, as per PTI reports.
It is pertinent to note that there has been an increase in the incidents of people dying by jumping from this bridge.
Similar incidents on Atal Setu:
A 43-year-old woman jumped from Atal Setu on March 18, 2024. This is the first incident of suicide attempt on Atal Setu.
Later, three such incident occurred within a week where the man has tried to kill himself by jumping in the sea. Shockingly, they all were suffering losses in the business and were dealing with stress.
A 38-year-old man climbed over the railings of the Atal Setu bridge, and jumped into the sea. The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon, July 24, around 12.30 pm at a distance of about 13.5 kms away from Mumbai.
A 65-year-old diamond merchant Sanjay Shah from South Mumbai allegedly died by suicide by jumping into the Arabian sea near the Gateway of India on Sunday morning, July 21.
Meanwhile, a Ghatkopar resident had ended his life on July 17 by jumping off the Worli-Bandra sea link.
Five months ago, in September, a 40-year-old bank manager also jumped to death at the Atal Setu. It is believed that work-related stress may have led him to take the step.
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