Kozhikode: Since Sunday morning, all of Kozhikode has been searching for the man who saved the woman from Chaliyar.
All knew it was a truck driver who lowered a rope to Varsha and Jithin, who had jumped into the river from Feroke bridge in a suicide bid. But no one knew who Varsha’s saviour was. Many on social media started referring to him as the ‘unknown man who left the scene without making any claim of being a saviour.’
After the rescuers found Jithin’s body, the police and media persons once again started to search for the man. Later it emerged the man all were looking for was Jabir from Mappuram, near Vazhakkad in Malappuram district.
He works with Peekay Steels as a truck driver. It was during his routine trip from the company godown in Areekode in Malappuram to the factory at Nallalam in Kozhikode that he saw a few drivers and onlookers yelling and pointing at the duo drowning in river Chaliyar.
“Though it was a suicide attempt, both Jithin and Varsha were crying for help,” Jabir told Onmanorama.
“When I dropped the rope, Varsha caught it and held on to it. Even though Jithin was trying to but he failed to catch it …Then I tried to drop another rope into the spot where he could catch it easily. But as a lot of people together tried to drop the rope it got entangled. By the time I lowered the rope again, Jithin drowned,” Jabir said with sadness in his voice.
The fishermen, who dragged Varsha to their boat, gave their paddle to Jithin to hold on to, but he was not able to catch it, Jabir said.
“Varsha was crying loudly ‘please save chettan (Jithin) too…’ I feel sorry that I could not,” he said.
“When fishers took Varsha to safety and when I realised that Jithin has drowned, I left the spot as my track was causing a traffic jam,” said Jabir. “When I was driving towards Nallalam, I saw Feroke police inspector’s vehicle and gave them information about what happened,” he said.
A Youth League ward secretary, Jabir said he also helped in the rescue efforts during the Kadalundi train tragedy in 2001.
Varsha and Jithin jumped into the river around 10.15 am on Sunday. While Varsha is recovering in the hospital, Jithin’s body was found in the river at Mammily Kadavu, at Mullassery, Cheruvannur, near Feroke on Monday afternoon.
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