KOCHI: The timely intervention by the police prevented a youth from committing suicide, after they got a whiff of the youngster’s intentions through his post on a social media platform. The incident took place in Kochi recently after a youth made a declaration on Reddit about committing suicide due to unemployment and financial issues at home.
The announcement about suicide was posted by the 22-year-old Mulavukad native a few days back. Luckily, a Kochi native named Abishek whose wife Gowri Lakshmi works as a clerk at the office of the Ernakulam DIG Putta Vimaladitya saw the message on Reddit within minutes after it was posted.
“Soon, my wife Gowri informed the matter to Vimaladitya who passed on the information to Ernakulam Rural Police Chief Vaibhav Saxena. Vaibhav contacted his Cyber Police Team and directed them to track the person. Even though several attempts were made to identify the person using his profile, it did not succeed initially,” a police officer said.
Thus, the police team contacted the Reddit office and directed them to provide details of the profile from which a suicide message was posted. Within minutes, the mobile number and other details of the youth were revealed.
When the police team reached the house of the youth, he was getting ready to hang himself. He had also procured poison in case this attempt failed. “We spoke to his mother and later convinced him against killing himself. We first gave a brief counselling. Later, we arranged psychological counselling sessions as part of his rehabilitation,” the police officer said.