HYDERABAD: In an incident that seemed right out of a film script, two policemen on Monday saved the life of a woman who attempted suicide by hanging. Without wasting a moment, they untied her from a ceiling fan in her house, carried her to their patrol vehicle, and rushed her to the hospital. A video of the incident has gone viral, earning praise for the quick-thinking cops. However, the woman’s husband, who also attempted suicide, lost his life.
The police were first alerted by the couple’s neighbours, who noticed smoke emanating from their first-floor flat at a building in Yellareddyguda. The information was passed on to patrol car I of the Jawahar Nagar police station around 10 am. Head constable T Mahipal and home guard B Naveen soon reached the spot, and after looking around, noticed that they couldn’t take their vehicle on the lane near the flat.
They got down and entered on foot, and through a bathroom window, saw a man, Bandi Murali, hanging in a bedroom. They entered the flat, trying to find Murali’s wife, Bandi Priyanka, and noticed that another bedroom was latched from inside. They broke in and found Priyanka hanging from the ceiling fan.
The cops were confused about the smoke in the flat, head constable T Mahipal said, adding that they soon realised the woman gasping for breath. “We immediately untied her and brought her out of the flat. We thought of calling an ambulance, but to save time, decided to take her to the nearby hospital ourselves”, he recounted. Mahipal, who had earlier fractured his legs in an accident, asked Naveen if he could carry the woman down. In a flash, Naveen took the woman in his arms, ran down the stairs, and reached the police vehicle, about 150 m from the building. The woman was soon admitted in hospital, where she is recovering.
“In such cases, we usually don’t take a decision without consulting our superiors. But we didn’t know what to do, and just wanted to save her life,” Mahipal said.Naveen added: “During review meetings, our commissioner and DGP motivated us to improve the service and take such decisions without waiting for instructions.” The policemen were later rewarded by Rachakonda Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat.
Police inquiries revealed that the couple got married two years ago, and were childless, due to which they were undergoing fertility treatment. “This led to differences between the couple,” said Jawaharnagar police officials, who registered a case and started a probe.