Suicide at Nandi Hills: Boy’s body found after 5 days

Bengaluru: Five days after a 25-year-old woman plunged to her death along with her two-and-a half-year old son, from Tipu's Drop atop Nandi Hills, the Chikkaballapura police have finally located the body of the boy, identified as Sathvik.

The deceased woman, identified as Prateeksha, took the extreme step following harassment by her husband and in-laws over dowry. Initially the police were not sure if Pratheeksha had come to Tipu's Drop with her son as there were no CCTV footage to show her entry into Nandi Hills.

The police, however, got credible information that Sathvik was present with Prateeksha after they found two witnesses, who came forward and claimed to have seen her with her son. This led Chikkaballapur police to locate the boy’s body, which had fallen between two boulders. “We located the body on Thursday. It had fallen in an extremely unreachable place. We have to lower someone using a rope to recover the body,” DySP, Chikkaballapur District said.

The body was identified by Pratheeksha’s father and her husband Suman’s uncle. Suman, his parents, his younger brother and his wife are absconding since Sunday. “The family delayed in giving us a complaint, without which we cannot arrest accused persons. It gave them time to get away,” police officials said.

On Friday afternoon, Pratheeksha left home with Sathvik. Pratheeksha waited a while, wondering how to get to the top of the hills before she stopped a student of the college, identified by the police as Srinivas. She stopped Srinivas and asked him to drop her to the top of the hills.

“She told Srinvias that her friends were waiting for her and that they were having a get together on top of the hills. Initially Srinivas hesitated and told her he didn’t have enough fuel in his bike. However, she managed to convince him, promising to give him cash for fuel as well,” police officials investigating the case said. Even when they reached the top of the hill, she stuck with Srinivas to ensure that she did not draw any

unnecessary attention.

Once they had bought tickets and entered the gates, she asked for Srinivas’s phone, saying she couldn’t get network on hers.

Incidentally, Srinivas had an MTS connection, which works on top of the hills, police said.

Using Srinivas’s phone, Pratheeksha called a childhood friend, her classmate at PUC. “She asked him to call her back and cut the call,” police said. However, he was unable to reach her. This call however, helped the police track down Srinivas and ascertain whether Sathvik was with her on that fateful day.