Navi Mumbai woman rescues Bandra girl
By Dinesh Kamath
NAVI MUMBAI: Shalini Sharma is the resident of Navi Mumbai. She did a yeomen job on
behalf of the Mumbai Police’s Hostage & Crisis Negotiation Team. She
prevented Bandra girl from committing suicide. She played a powerful role in
the two-and-a-half hour drama that took place.
She was returning back to
Navi Mumbai after attending a women’s day function in Mumbai. She got a call at
around 8.30 pm. on Friday. On the phone, she was told that a girl who was in
eleventh standard was threatening to jump and commit suicide from the seventh
floor in Bandra. Shalini was told that the girl was serious about committing
suicide since she appeared to be extremely disturbed. The call had come from
the police control room.
Fortunately, Shalini was
close to Bandra and within half at hour she managed to reach the spot where
this incident was taking place. The place was Ashtavinayak Cooperative Society
and there was a huge crowd witnessing this drama. The policemen and fire
brigade officials were also present but they didn’t seem to have any kind of
control over the situation. A senior inspector helped Shalini Sharma to make
her way through the crowd and go inside the building.
This was Shalini’s first
case and a challenging one too. She was a part of the 17-member team of Hostage & Crisis
Negotiation Department which was launched a year back. This team was trained by
the Scotland Yard, and the speciality of this squad was they were taught to
understand and analyze the body language of the victim.
Shalini had one look at the
girl and it was clear that the girl was disturbed, confused and very angry.
Shalini was tense and worried. She had no time to talk to the girl’s family.
Hence she decided to directly talk to the girl. The girl was on the seventh
floor, and Shalini had to start communicating with her. She decided to
negotiate with the girl. Shalini was on a balcony from where she could get the
view of the girl. She made a sign that everything was alright and there was
nothing to worry about. Shalini gave the girl the assurance that nobody would
harm her and that she was a policewoman who sincerely wanted to solve her
problem. Shalini tried speaking to the girl in sign language but this didn’t
help. After a few moments, Shalini got an idea and she managed to pass on a
mobile phone to the girl.
The girl felt secure with
Shalini and she confessed the reasons behind her attempting to suicide. She
told Shalini that she could not cope with the problems she was facing at
college and home and hence she was terribly depressed. The girl complained that
she had no one to speak to about her problems and this had frustrated her to
such an extent that she thought of committing suicide. She also confessed that
she had made attempts to run away from home a couple of times in the past.
Shalini passed on some kind words to the girl through the mobile phone and got
her to come down to her from the seventh floor. The girl came to normal only
after Shalini made many assurances which instilled confidence into her. Shalini
also advised her family to be kind to her.
Thus Shalini could do what
many policemen and firemen could not do. It was sad that the fire brigade did
not even have the ladders nor did they have the safety net to save the girl.
They were only making the girl more panicky by focusing their torch lights on
her. It is dreadful to imagine as to what would have happened to the girl if
Shalini had not reached the spot on time and used the perfect tactics.
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