Youth leaps to death at Nandi Hills to atone for beating mother

A 23-year-old, angry with himself for having beaten his mother, jumped off Tipu Drop on Nandi Hills and ended his life on Tuesday evening.

Police said that Sharath Kumar, a resident of Tyagarajanagar, had been unemployed, and had studied up to the pre-university level. On Tuesday afternoon, he had a quarrel with his mother. Enraged, he beat her. He later regretted it, and wrote a letter to his parents saying he was going to end his life.

Sharath’s parents read the letter and searched all over the neighbourhood for him on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the youth had taken a bus to the Nandi Cross, and hired an autorickshaw to go up the hill. Anticipating that he would be stopped at the entrance to Nandi Hills, since police do not allow anyone to go alone that way, Sharath asked the auto driver to accompany him. The auto driver complied with his request, and after wandering about for a while, was shocked to see Sharath leap off Tipu Drop.

The auto driver rushed to inform the police at the nearby out-post. It was already dusk by then, and the policemen put off searching for the youth till Wednesday morning.

At 9.30 am on Wednesday, policemen found the body and shifted it to the district government hospital at Chikkaballapur. The body was handed over to Sharath’s family after the post-mortem examination. Chikkaballapur rural police have registered a case.