Alerted by man’s social media post, police prevent suicide

Mumbai Police prevented a 21-year-old man from committing suicide after receiving an alert from Facebook about his intention. The police successfully traced the man's location and found him within an hour of receiving the alert. The man was counselled and handed over to a relative.

MUMBAI: Police on Friday stopped a 21-year-old man from taking his life within an hour of him putting a Facebook post about his intention.

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According to police officers, the social media company sent an alert to the cyber cell of Mumbai police who in turn traced the man’s location to Andheri East. Thereafter, the cyber cell asked the MIDC police to track down the account holder.

“We received a call from the cyber cell around 7.30 pm. The post did not give any clue about his address,” a police officer said.

Meanwhile, to zero in on the area where the man lived in Andheri, police sub-inspector Pramod Kotwal from the cyber cell analysed the person’s profile and pictures. Kotwal then joined police sub-inspector Anand Kashid from MIDC police and his team in a search of the man.

“Once the team was in the identified locality, they used the man’s pictures to ask around. The team found his house within an hour of receiving the call,” the police officer said. When the team reached his home, the man was sitting with a piece of cloth, the officer said. “We brought him to the police station. He lives alone in Mumbai and is engaged in a blue-collar job. His family is in Uttar Pradesh.” The police counselled him and handed him over to a relative.