Guntur (Andhra Pradesh): A 13-year-old girl in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district saved herself by hanging onto a pipe after being pushed into Godavari river from a bridge by her mother's live-in-partner. The accused had pushed the girl's mother and her one-year-old sister along with her. The woman and child are missing.
After being pushed off the bridge, the girl clinched onto a pipe and shouted out for help. While holding on to the pipe, she took out her mobile phone from her pocket and dialed 100 for police help. A team from Ravulapalem police station reached the spot and rescued the girl, Keerthana.
According to the police, Keerthana's mother, Puppala Suhasini (36) of Tadepalli in Guntur got separated from her husband due to differences some years ago. She worked as a labourer and brought up her daughter alone. Two years back, Suhasini got into a live-in relationship with Ulava Suresh from Darshi in Prakasam district. Suhasini and Suresh had a one-year-old girl, Jersey. Recently, Suresh started quarrelling with Suhasini and wanted to get rid of her and the children.
On Saturday evening, Suresh took the three in a car to buy clothes in Rajamahendravaram. He drove to different places throughout the night and finally brought them to Gautami Old Bridge over the Godavari river in Ravulapalem at around 4 am. He asked Suhasini and the two children to pose for photographs and made them stand on the brick wall. While the three were looking towards the river, Suresh pushed them into the river and then ran away from the spot in car.
While Suhasini and Jersey fell into the river, Keerthana grabbed a pipe on the side of the bridge and held tightly to it. She kept screaming out for help.
Suddenly she remembered that she had a mobile phone in her pocket. Balancing the pipe with one hand, she took out the mobile and immediately dialed 100. Inspector Venkataramana of Ravulapalem police station along with his team rushed to the spot after getting the call. They found that the girl was hanging on to the pipe in the dark for about half an hour. After being rescued by police, Keerthana narated the entire episode.
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Police have formed a team to search the river for rescuing the girl's mother and sister who were missing and another to trace the accused. Superintendent of Police, Sridhar congratulated the girl for her courage and police for rescuing the girl on time.
