4 days on, gym trainer who jumped off Airoli bridge rescued from the mangroves

Navi Mumbai: A gym trainer who jumped off Airoli bridge was rescued 2.5 km away after four days. He was dehydrated, hospitalized, and later discharged home.

Navi Mumbai: Four days after a 37-year-old gym trainer from Mulund jumped off the Airoli bridge, the police on Thursday traced and rescued him 2.5 km away from the bridge in the mangroves.

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Police officials said, “Due to dehydration he was weak but was immediately rushed to the Thane Civic Hospital. He was later discharged and is currently at his residence.”

The gym trainer, who lives in Mulund along with his parents, had allegedly assaulted a fellow gym mate with a heavy object on his head. The video of the incident went viral after which a case was registered against him on July 17 at the Navghar police station and the gym trainer was arrested under section 118(2) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt). He later came out on bail, added officials.

After coming out of jail on August 5, the gym trainer was upset, as he felt that his career was destroyed. He was so worried about the social media posts after the video went viral, said a police officer.

On August 5, in the afternoon, he left his house for some work and went to Airoli bridge and parked his bike and jumped off the creek. His bike was found in the evening and after checking the registration number and details, it was found that the bike was registered in the name of his father. The family was informed by the police. They reached the spot and confirmed to the police that the two-wheeler belonged to him.

A missing person complaint was registered and police suspected that he had jumped in the creek due to his frustration about his arrest and his video going viral. The cops checked CCTV footage of the area but due to poor quality of the footage, they could not see anything. “We were, however, certain that the trainer had jumped off the creek around 5:30pm on Monday,” said a police officer.

As per the senior officer’s instruction, the police then hired a boat and went to search on Thursday. The search operation was conducted by two constables, Nitin Narkar and Borse of the Navghar police station, as well as a boat owner and gym trainer’s father. They went into the Airoli creek around 11am on Thursday. We were heading towards Vashi searching for a gym trainer and after around 2.5 kilometres, we heard a sound that a person was calling for help was stuck in the mangroves. His clothes were torn and entirely covered in mud, said constable Nitin Narkar.

“It was a miracle for us. We immediately pulled him out on the boat around 3:30pm. He has become weak as he has no foot and no water from Monday to Thursday. We alerted senior officials, and he was rushed to the Thane Civic Hospital. He was under observation for a few hours and after he was discharged,” added Narkar.

The police made a video call to the gym trainer’s mother after he was found and she was so happy and started crying, said a police officer.