Sholay replay? Man climbs up mobile tower, threatens police to find missing wife in Bengaluru

In an incident reminiscent of Veeru’s stunt in the Bollywood film Sholay, a 37-year-old daily wage labourer scaled a mobile tower and refused to come down until the police began tracing his missing wife.

The incident occurred in Attibele police station limits on Sunday.

After two hours of struggle and mediation, the police, along with Fire and Emergency Services personnel, managed to bring him down.

The man, identified as Chiranjeevi from Gangavathi, had come to Attibele to work as a daily wage labourer with his family. He was married to Roja and the couple had two children aged 12 and 8 years, the police said.

Roja worked at a garment factory, and both their children were in the hostel to study. Chiranjeevi allegedly became a chronic alcoholic and used to beat up Roja suspecting her character.

On Saturday, Chiranjeevi saw Roja travelling in a car belonging to the landlord and created a ruckus, accusing her of having an affair. Roja tried to convince him that she was offered a drop by her landlord while coming from work, but Chiranjeevi, in a drunken state, beat her up, said the police. Unable to bear this, Roja reportedly sent a video recording to his family members and left home after switching off her mobile.

A few hours later, Chiranjeevi tried to reach her, but her phone was off.

Suspecting something amiss, he rushed to the Attibele police station on Saturday evening and filed a missing persons complaint. While police were busy with security duty part of Ganesha festival procession, Chiranjeevi, to grab their attention, climbed up a 150 ft. mobile tower and called the control room, giving an ultimatum that he would jump if the police did not find his wife.

The police tried to convince him to come down, but Chiranjeevi demanded that the landlord, Harish, should come and clarify. The police called Harish, who reached the spot and clarified that he saw Roja walking back home from work and offered to drop her.

It took three hours for the police to convince him to come down. It was windy and raining heavily, and he was inebriated and struggling to balance at the top, a police officer said.

He was detained at the station to ensure he was safe, the officer said.