Deccan Herald 20.09.1996

Foreigner takes a fatal leap
By Our Staff Reporter

Bangalore, Sept 1996
A 33-year old foreigner jumped off the eighth floor of the State Bank of Mysore building on K.G. Road here this evening to the horror of passersby. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Pravin Sood said Richardson Andrew Grant from Johannesburg, South Africa had arrived here today and hired a taxi at the City Railway Station to go around.

In the evening, when the car reached Mysore Bank Circle, he got out, flung some currency notes and travelers´ cheques in the air and ran inside the bank. He climbed up all the way to reach the eighth floor and after shattering the windowpanes, leapt to his death. Death was instantaneous,
police said.

Mr. Sood said the man, in a suicide note found in his pocket, said his life was full of confusion and that he had come to India in search of peace. He arrived in the country on September 9 and was said to have visited the Sai Baba Ashram in Whitefield.

The Bangalore police have informed the British High Commission in Madras about the suicide as Richardson was also holding a British passport. According to Mr. Sood, the body has already been shifted to Madras.

Traffic on the busy K.G. Road was disrupted for over half an hour as hundreds of people gathered at the spot. The aghast taxi driver meanwhile, told police that the man owed him about Rs. 500.