Around 3.40pm on Sunday, the day of second shahi snan, a man walked on the Talkuteshwar bridge, climbed on the railing and suddenly jumped off it. The police personnel on duty rushed and tried to hold his hand, but it slipped. Without a single moment's hesitation, constable Manoj Barahate jumped off the bridge, and pulled the drowning man up. By this time, other personnel had gone by the river and they pulled both of them out.
Around 3.40pm on Sunday, the day of second shahi snan, a man walked on the Talkuteshwar bridge, climbed on the railing and suddenly jumped off it. The police personnel on duty rushed and tried to hold his hand, but it slipped. Without a single moment's hesitation, constable Manoj Barahate jumped off the bridge, and pulled the drowning man up. By this time, other personnel had gone by the river and they pulled both of them out.
Barahate joined the police force just a year ago. On August 10, he got his first posting – Kumbh Mela in Nashik. Recollecting the incident, Barahate said, "I and my friends had just had lunch and had resumed our spot for duty by the Talkuteshwar bridge when we saw this man jumping off. When I looked down, I could only see his back and head. I immediately removed my shoes and wallet, and jumped in. He was unconscious when I reached him. I dragged him out of the deep, and then my colleagues pulled both of us us out. The man was taken to a hospital. I was later told that he survived."
"I learned swimming when I was a child. But that time when I and other kids jumped in the river, we knew how deep the water was. Here, I had no time to think of the depth of water, or if there were any rocks underneath. I only knew that I could not let a man die and had to do some thing. So I jumped," he added. The control room, which was recording the incident with a CCTV camera, immediately sent an ambulance.
Barahate comes from a modest family, with his father doing odd jobs and his mother a housewife. His brother runs a small pan kiosk. He said when his mother came to know of the incident, she began crying out of fear and pride.
"I joined the force as I felt I could help people as well," he added. Barahate is not the only cop to have helped humanity by going beyond the call of duty. Tirupati Balaji Mundhe, a constable from Latur training school, was also on his first duty when he recently saved a young boy from drowning at the Gauri Patangan ghat. "I just ran into the water, and pulled him out to safety. I realised that his feet were bleeding, so I carried him to the ambulance," said Mundhe, who hails from Sibbat village in Mukhed tehsil. He
In another incident, Home guard Rajendra Palve from Partur office was on duty at Gandhi Talav in Nashik during the Parvani when he saw two youths drowning. He jumped in but soon realised that he was being pulled down by the two youths' weight. He then held on to one of them. By this time, the life guards on duty had noticed them and had jumped in to help them all.
"I am very proud of my people, who have been so helpful to the pilgrims despite the fact that they have a tough job of the bandobast to do," said police commissioner S Jaggnathan.
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