Early on Wednesday, the city woke up to the tragic news of a U.S.-returned 31-year-old software engineer falling to her death from the 11th floor of an apartment at Sahakarnagar. A day before that, a woman had a miraculous escape from a similar situation.
Nagarathna (36), a domestic help at the posh Elita Promenade apartment complex in J.P. Nagar 7th Phase, survived a fall from the 17 floor of the balcony she was cleaning early on Tuesday morning. She managed to escape with a broken leg as the railing on the 15 floor broke her fall. She is now recuperating in a private hospital on Bannerghatta Road.
A resident of the apartment, who did not wish to be quoted, said that the woman was cleaning the window pane from the sit out of an apartment on the 17 floor at around 5.30 a.m. The flat’s owner was in the U.S. and has given Nagarathna, a key to the apartment. She had bolted the door from inside and had started cleaning the window pane, reaching it with the help of a metal ladder, when she slipped. “She slipped and fell off, but somehow her leg got stuck to the railing of the sit out of the flat on the 15 floor. It was too early in the morning and to make matters worse, the 15 floor flat was also locked. A few boys living in the neighbouring flat heard her cries and crossed over to the balcony and managed to rescue her. In the meanwhile, the others got the security manager to open the 15 floor apartment and she was taken to hospital,” the apartment resident said.
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Nagarathna is said to have suffered a fracture in the leg, but is refusing to speak to the media. She is yet to give a statement to the police. But, those who were witness to the incident, even though much later, called it “the rarest of rare cases,” even going as far as to say Nagarathna is “the luckiest woman to be alive.”