Howrah: Mentally ill woman climbs iconic bridge, demands return of 'stolen Nobel Prize'

Kolkata's world-famous Howrah Bridge witnessed a rather comic incident on Sunday evening after a middle-aged, mentally unstable woman climbed on a pillar of the bridge claiming that her Nobel prize was "stolen" in her childhood and was in possession of Amartya Sen and threatened to jump into the Ganga should her 'award' is not returned. Police and fire brigade officials were head-over-heels in trying to convince the woman to climb down.

According to media reports, the incident happened at around 6 pm when the woman climbed the fourth pillar of the bridge, screaming that she had lost the Nobel Prize which had been awarded to her when she was a child. She also claimed that it was now in the hands of a current Nobel Prize winner and that her repeated letters to the government requesting the return of the prize had yielded no results at all, reports say.

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Police response

The police and fire brigade officials were head-over-heels in trying to convince the woman to climb down since there was a chance of an accident. The stubborn woman refused to climb down until the police promised to find and return her Nobel Prize to her. After several attempts of sweet talk and convincing, the woman yielded and climbed down.

According to reports, the woman is a resident of the neighbouring North 24 Parganas district and the police have started investigating the matter.

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