52-year-old Businessman Jumps Off Mumbai's Atal Setu, 2nd Suicide Case From Sea Bridge In Two Days

In what is the second death by suicide from Mumbai’s Atal Setu in a gap of two days, a 52-year-old businessman ended his life by jumping off the sea bridge early on Wednesday.

According to police, the man was identified as Matunga resident Philip Hitesh Shah. The man, who lived with his family, was depressed over the past few months and may have taken the step because of it, they said.

“Around 9 am, we received information that an unknown person stopped his vehicle on the northbound stretch at around 14.4 km from Navi Mumbai and jumped into the sea,” senior police inspector Anjum Bagwan of the Nhava Sheva police station told The Indian Express.

Police said a rescue team was immediately dispatched to fish out the body, which was recovered and taken to the hospital. Doctors declared Shah dead before treatment.

“We checked his vehicle and found his Aadhaar card through which he was identified and the family was contacted,” Bagwan was quoted. A senior police officer said no note was recovered from him.

Shah’s wife told police that he was mentally disturbed and depressed, for which he was undergoing treatment. “He left his house around 8 am after claiming that he was going to attend a function and would return in some time,” the senior inspector was quoted.

A case of accidental death report was registered and the matter is being further investigated.

Two days ago, a 40-year-old banker jumped off the Atal Setu and was later found washed up on the seashore in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday (October 1). Sushant Chakravarti was a deputy manager with a nationalised bank, and he parked his SUV on the bridge at Sewri and jumped into the sea.

Chakravarti’s wife said he worked at the bank’s Fort branch in south Mumbai and claimed he was under immense work pressure.

The ‘Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu’, also known as the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL), that connects south Mumbai with the satellite city of Navi Mumbai, was inaugurated in January. The six-lane bridge is 21.8 km long with a 16.5 km sea link.