Call from FB helps police in Delhi, Mumbai thwart man’s bid to end life

NEW DELHI: A well-coordinated operation involving Facebook officials in Ireland and police in Delhi and Mumbai saved a possible death by suicide of a man whose wife had left home after a quarrel and had been missing for over a fortnight.
A Facebook official from Ireland called up Delhi Police’s cyber cell on Saturday informing that their systems had identified suicidal activity on a Facebook account belonging to a Delhi resident and passed on the mobile number, which was used to open the account.
Since calling the number directly could have triggered a panic response from a person who is already psychologically fragile, DCP Anyesh Roy got the location of the phone user tracked down. The details showed that the phone address was of Mandawali, East Delhi, after which DCP (East) Jasmeet Singh was informed.
A local police team was rushed to the address within minutes. They were, however, much relieved to find her fine. She was oblivious of the inter-continental hue and cry that her Facebook account had caused.
Sumati confirmed that the given phone number belongs to her but the Facebook account, she said, was used by her husband who was currently in Mumbai. She told police that she’d left her Mumbai home two weeks ago after a fight and was currently working as a cook at a hotel. She gave her husband Rajesh’s phone number, but was not aware of his address.
The cyber cell sleuths got in touch with their counterparts in Mumbai. DCP Rashmi Karandikar from Mumbai Police managed to talk to Rajesh after sometime when he switched on his phone. She spoke at length with the man, who was in a lot of psychological distress, and counselled him, while simultaneously alerting the local police of Bhayandar area, a suburb of Mumbai. Within minutes, the local cops reached Rajesh’s place of stay and took charge of the situation.