A 40-year-old man, who is a high-ranking officer with the East Central Railway, was rescued by a group of fishermen after he fell off the Mahatma Gandhi Setu on Monday morning.

Zafar Azam, the deputy chief operational manager with the East Central Railway in Danapur, said in his statement to police that he “toppled off the bridge after a bout of dizziness”.

While the local Alamganj police station kept mum about the matter, stating that investigations are on, sources questioned how the man slipped off the bridge which has railings as high as 1.5 metres. The spot from where Azam fell in the Ganga is infamous for incidents of suicides and attempts for the same.

The incident occurred around 11am. The man, along with two others — Rakesh Kumar, a railway traffic inspector, and driver Rajesh — was travelling on the bridge in a car.

“As the vehicle approached pillar number 42 (notorious as suicide spot), Azam asked the driver to stop the car. He said he had to throw some things into the river. He perhaps leaned on the railings to throw the articles and toppled in the process. He fell on a sandy patch as the water had dried up in the area. Some eyewitnesses raised an alarm and a group of fishermen, who were close by, reached the spot and rescued him,” a police officer told The Telegraph.

The officer added: “He was taken in an unconscious state to Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH) where Azam’s family members as well as a lot of railway officials arrived. From NMCH, he was shifted to a private nursing home — Rajeshwar Hospital —where he is being treated for his injuries.”

Rakesh, who was accompanying Azam in the car, also said the senior railway officer slipped off the bridge as he was not feeling well. “Azam said he felt dizzy and toppled off the bridge. Rakesh, too, said Azam was complaining of dizziness,” another police officer said.

“Right now, Azam has not spoken much and the police are yet to take down the statement of the driver. According to the information available with us, Azam lives in RD Mansion Apartments on Ashiana-Digha Road. The two men — Rakesh and Azam — were on their way from Digha. More statements need to be taken and the police are investigating the matter. It is, however, quite strange that Azam toppled off despite such high railings,” the officer added.

The 5.575km-long bridge has seen many suicides and attempts for the same, maximum of them being reported from the stretch between the pillar number 42 and 44.

In a bid to prevent suicides off the bridge, the Patna police, in November last year, had come up with a proposal to set up high metallic nets along the railings. The move has, however, not seen the light of the day.

At the bridge, pillar numbers 1 to 36 fall under the Vaishali police, while pillars 37 to 46 fall under the under Alamganj police station of Patna. A distance of one-and-half-km of the bridge falls under Patna, while the rest falls under the Vaishali district.