Mumbai doctor jumps off Atal Setu, police recover 'suicide note'

A 43-year-old woman doctor jumped off the Atal Setu, India's longest sea bridge, in Mumbai. The police have initiated a search operation for her body and an official said that an alleged "suicide note" has been recovered from her house in the city.

This is the first such incident on the newly-built Atal Setu, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 12 and spans a length of 21.8 km with a 16.5 km sea-link.

According to the police, the woman identified as Kinjal Kantilal Shah was undergoing treatment for depression. She lived with her father at the Navin Asha building on Dadasaheb Phalke Road in the city's Parel area.

The police said that she took a cab on Monday afternoon to the Atal Setu.

“After a short distance on the sea bridge, the woman started asking the driver to stop the taxi. The driver was reluctant but she insisted, so the driver stopped the vehicle. She got out and jumped off the bridge,” the PTI news agency quoted senior police inspector Rajendra Kote as saying.

Inspector Kote said the driver then informed the Navi Mumbai Police, which immediately initiated the search and rescue operation with the help of coastal police and locals of the area.

He said that the woman told her father that she was going out for some work on Monday afternoon, but when he returned home later that day, he found her "suicide note" in which it was written that she was going to Atal Setu to "end her life".

In the note, the woman said she was taking the drastic step as she had been battling severe depression for the last eight years.

The father then approached the police, seeking to help find her.

CCTV video showed the woman boarding the cab, as well as her attempt to die by suicide from the bridge, Inspector Kote added.

(With inputs from PTI)