Gandhi Hospital, on Tuesday, witnessed a dramatic rescue effort by policemen who did their best to prevent a doctor from committing suicide. The rescue plan, charted on the spot by police, was executed with ‘surgical’ precision.
Before jumping into action, the policemen knew that just a spark near the petrol bottles, tucked under CAS G. Vasanth Kumar’s shirt, would severely burn all of them in seconds.
A few hours before the rescue, Chilkalguda inspector A.C. Balagangi Reddy pointed to the doctor’s shirt and said that he was reeking of petrol. Dr. Kumar reached the hospital with four bottles of petrol tucked under his shirt and a lighter in his right hand. Though Mr. Reddy tried to reason, the CAS asked him to stay away.
During these attempts to pacify him, a plan was conceived. Mr. Reddy asked some reporters to surround him and a few others to hold their mikes a little away from the doctor.
“On the pretext of shoving away the mikes close to him, I walked towards him,” he said. Prior to this, fire-fighters and an ambulance were on standby. “We kept four buckets of water ready. Besides, two personnel with foam guns stood on two ends,” the Chilkalguda inspector said.
As Dr. Kumar turned his head to his left, Mr. Reddy pounced on him from the right, pulled his hand and took the lighter.
By then, some sub-inspectors and constables also jumped on him and held the CAS tightly to remove the petrol bottles by removing his shirt. Simultaneously, foam was sprayed and water poured on him.
Appreciating the efforts, Hyderabad Commissioner Anjani Kumar announced ₹10,000 cash reward for Mr. Reddy and his team.