Death at Bengaluru Metro: Teen in tragic suicide

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In a tragic end to a young life of immense promise, Vishnu Sharan, a 17 year old student of St Joseph’s Arts & Science College jumped before a moving train at the MG Road Metro Station, becoming the first casualty of the metro since it began in October last year.

The distraught and nervous Sharan can be seen in the CCTV footage made available to Deccan Chronicle, checking his mobile phone a number of times before throwing himself on the tracks, and under the wheels of the train.

Unsuspecting passengers, milling around the platform and waiting for the train from Byapanahalli at 8.30 pm were left in shock as the train ground to a halt on impact. Metro authorities swiftly evacuated the station.

Vishnu Sharan was a first year PU student at the city college. From a fairly affluent family, he was the son of businessman SV Satyanarayana, a resident of Jayanagar 2nd block.

The train may have snapped the suicide victim’s spinal cord, causing instant death, doctors said. As this reporter entered the station, the tracks were still covered with blood. Metro officials said it took police, fire personnel and doctors over an hour to retrieve his bloodied body from the charged tracks and send it to the Bowring Hospital morgue Cubbon Park Police have registered a case and is investigating the cause of death.

The police are also taking help of the CCTV footage captured by the cameras installed at the MG Road station.

Sharan’s friends as well as his schoolteacher G. N. Venkatesh said he was a school topper who consistently scored in the nineties, and loved football, discounting speculation he had committed suicide over his studies or over a broken heart.

Sharan’s shell-shocked parents were at the hospital late on Monday. Their son’s identity card which listed his home phone number helped metro officials trace the family and alert them over their devastating loss.

Sharan reportedly called his mother at 8 pm to say he was on his way home although he was at the station.