Bengaluru: Man tries to save wife, falls from Nandi Hills

BENGALURU: A 53-year-old man fell off a cliff at Nandi Hills, about 60km from Bengaluru, when he tried to save his wife when she accidentally slipped and tumbled down on Tuesday evening. He survived; his wife’s body was found 350ft below some 21hours after the accident. M Kumar, a catering contractor, and J Sunita, 50, from Hassan, had come to Bengaluru to visit their relatives and decided to visit Nandi Hills on Tuesday. “We came here by afternoon. Around 6.30pm, we went near a rocky place behind Mayura Hotel and sat there,” Kumar told police. Around 6.50pm, we decided to return. When my wife stood up, one slipper came away. She bent forward to pick it up, but lost balance and slipped,” Kumar told police, adding, “She screamed and started falling into the gorge. I held her arm, but lost control. I fell into an adjacent gorge and got stuck between boulders. I sustained head injuries and lost consciousness.” Around 10pm, Kumar regained consciousness and returned to the hotel and told staff about the incident. They alerted cops at the Nandi Hills outpost. On Wednesday morning, police brought a drone camera from Chikkaballapura. By 4pm, they located the body in the shrubs near Muneshwara temple, around 350ft below. A police officer ruled out foul play and said the husband’s injuries and broken nose “are consistent with his version”. Kumar said moonlight helped him find his way back. “The boulders where I got stuck must be around 50ft below. On regaining consciousness, I checked my watch; it was around 10pm. I wriggled out, searched a pathway through the shrubs and spotted the hotel by its lights. Crawling slowly, I climbed back,” he told police. Source: Times of India