Swift rescue on MTHL as woman tries to drop images of gods in sea

MUMBAI: Traffic cops of the Nhava Sheva unit and an agile taxi driver prevented a 56-year-old woman from slipping into the sea from the Mumbai Trans-Harbour link (MTHL) on Friday evening.
The Mulund resident took the reckless decision of climbing over the protective railings along a section of MTHL to find a perch on the other side so that she could drop pictures of gods into the sea, on the advice of her spiritual guru. She had hired a cab from Mulund to travel to Airoli, but diverted her journey to MTHL.
As soon as she leapt out of the car and started scaling the railing, she caught the attention of the toll staff who immediately alerted the traffic patrolling unit, said senior inspector of the Nhava Sheva unit, Anjum Bagwan.
A CCTV footage of the occurrence that started doing the rounds later shows the driver of the cab rushing to prevent her from going over, to be joined by the police soon after. “We received alerts from the Shelgar toll booth staff about a car that had halted on the bridge and a woman climbing over the safety grilles. A unit was immediately sent,” said police inspector Gulfaroz Mujawar, from Nhava Sheva traffic unit.
When the team, comprising constables Lalit Amarshet, Kiran Mhatre and Yash Sonawane, arrived at the spot they saw her holding on to the railing precariously on the other side. The trio climbed over, and assisted by the cab driver, Sanjay Dwarka Yadav, helped her back to safety.
When cops received the alert they thought it was a bid for suicide, but the reality was revealed when they arrived at the spot.
“She said she lost her balance on seeing the police van. The cab driver played a crucial role by maintaining vigil and held onto her when she fell. The swift action by the patrolling unit saved the woman’s life,” added Bagwan.
Later, cops were informed by a relative that she was mentally unstable. Her husband, who was in Pune at the time of incident, was made abreast of the course of events by cops subsequently.