2 tragic suicides rock Mumbai on Friday morning

MUMBAI: A 31-year-old man shot himself dead with a country-made gun early on Friday in Sion. In a separate incident, in the second suicide of the day, a married woman jumped off from her seventh-floor flat in Mumbai Central. The police has registered accidental death reports (ADR) in both cases and are trying to verify the motive behind the extreme actions.

According to police sources, Ketan Patil allegedly shot himself in the head at 1.15 am near his residence near Sion Koliwada area. Patil, who owned a local pan-beedi shop, was a real estate broker. The initial probe suggests that he was incurring losses and since he couldn’t manage that, he decided to take the extreme step.

N. Ambika, deputy commissioner of police (zone 4), said, “The deceased had used a country-made gun. We are probing as to how and when did he get his hands on the gun. Patil had first fired a round in the air and then shot the second round through his head.”

In the second incident, 23-year-old housewife, Shweta Subhash Shah, jumped off the balcony of her seventh floor apartment in the Kothari Heights building as she walked towards the window of her bedroom at 11.15 am. When locals rushed her to the civic-run Nair Hospital, she was declared dead before arrival at 11.35 am.

“Shah’s family is still in shock, and we have not been able to speak with them. We will soon be making inquiries to find out why she might have taken the extreme step,” senior police inspector Sanjay Basvat, Nagpada police station said.