E-Paper
After alert from Facebook exec in Ireland, cops prevent suicide attempt in West Delhi
The officers of the cyber cell (CyPAD) and the Rajouri Garden police station took an hour and 15 minutes to locate the person’s address, enter his house and find him alone in a semi-conscious state
A coordinated effort between an Ireland-based executive of social networking site Facebook and officers of the Delhi Police on Thursday helped save the life of a 43-year-old man from west Delhi, who allegedly consumed 40 to 50 bottles of a syrup used in the treatment of thyroid and uploaded a video of the act along with a message, which suggested that he was ending his life.
The officers of the cyber cell (CyPAD) and the Rajouri Garden police station took an hour and 15 minutes to locate the person’s address, enter his house and find him alone in a semi-conscious state. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where timely medical intervention helped save his life, police officers privy to the entire incident said.
“The man was depressed over multiple reasons. His wife left him three years ago and shifted to Bhopal. He lost his job recently and his father had retired. Also, he was suffering from various health problems,” said deputy commissioner of police (CyPAD) KPS Malhotra.
This is the third such incident in which officials of Facebook in Ireland have coordinated with the Delhi Police since August last year. The previous such case was on September 10 (World Suicide Prevention Day), when a 27-year-old man was stopped from ending his life by jumping off the Signature Bridge in north Delhi.
In the latest case, around 2pm on Thursday, the CyPAD officials received an “urgent message” from a Facebook official in Ireland alerting them that a Facebook account holder had posted a message regarding a “suicide attempt”. The official also shared a video of the suicide attempt that the account holder had uploaded on his timeline.
“Within 40 minutes, our cyber experts collected details and the location of the user and alerted senior officers of south-west and west districts. In the next 35 minutes, the Rajouri Garden police reached the person’s house and rushed him to the hospital after finding him semi-conscious,” said Malhotra.
Malhotra said on inquiry, the man told the police that he had consumed 40 to 50 bottles of a syrup used in the treatment of thyroid allegedly because “he was upset”. In the morning, he spoke to his wife and told her that he wanted to visit her. However, she refused to meet him, the DCP said.
“To mount pressure on his in-laws, the man put the suicide attempt video on Facebook. But our timely response to the urgent message from the Facebook official saved his life,” added Malhotra.
HT reached out to the Facebook for its version but its officials declined comment on the incident.
In August last year, a similar coordinated effort between Facebook and police of Delhi and Mumbai helped save the life of a man in Mumbai. The man was from Delhi but had gone to Mumbai allegedly after an argument with his wife, the police had said.
