Cobra's bite claims 32-year-old constable's life

Mumbai: A 32-year-old police constable died after being bitten by a three-and-a-half-foot cobra that had entered his room in the police quarters at Nehru Nagar in Kurla (East) early on Monday.

According to the Nehru Nagar police, the deceased, Sunil Bhagat, was posted at the Shivaji Nagar police station in Pune. Bhagat’s wife, Samruddhi, is posted at Deonar police station, but she stays at the Nehru Nagar police quarters.

On Sunday, the couple slept at about 11.30 pm, Samruddhi told the police in her statement.

“Feeling restlessness, Bhagat woke up at around 2.30 am. He asked his wife to fetch him water while he went to the bathroom and washed his face. He then vomited,” said an officer from Nehru Nagar police station. The police suspects that the reptile must have bitten Bhagat when he was fast asleep.

Meanwhile, Samrud-dhi saw the snake in the kitchen near the gas cylinder and as she went to inform her husband about it, she saw him lying unconscious on the floor. She then made a dash for Nehru Nagar police station, which is situated 100 metres away, pleading for help. Bhagat was then rushed to the civic-run Sion Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival at 3.44am.

Preliminary postmort-em reports from the hospital confirmed that Bhagat died due to the snakebite. According to locals, this was not the first time a snake was spotted in the vicinity; this was, in fact, the second such instance in the locality in a year.