US tip-off saves city man streaming suicide bid

NEW DELHI: Almost an hour past midnight, deputy commissioner of police Anyesh Roy was holding a routine meeting with the Delhi Police’s cyber fraud team when his phone rang. An international number flashed on his mobile screen, prompting him to take it up quickly.

The caller, an official from the US headquarters of Facebook, told DCP Roy -- who is the force’s nodal officer for all social media-related cases in the city -- that a man, possibly a Delhi resident, was attempting suicide and streaming it live on the social media website on Friday.

Roy said the meeting was brought to an abrupt end, and Facebook officials quickly sent registration details about the man’s account by e-mail.

The Facebook live-stream by the user, a 40-year-old resident of Palam Vihar in the city, had ended by then, but the police team managed to find the man’s address by tracing his mobile number that was made available by Facebook.

By 1:45am, a police team from Palam Vihar rushed to the spot and found the man unconscious with multiple cuts to his wrist. Emergency services were on alert and the man was shifted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where he is recovering, a police statement on Saturday said.

“We were lucky, and so was he. The (man’s) address was precise (in SIM card registration) and had all details. We shared it with the police control room (in Palam Vihar),” said Roy.

Facebook did not immediately respond to request for confirmation.

Sub-inspector Amit Kumar at the Palam Vihar police station was among the team that rushed to the man’s house after

being informed of the suicide attempt. “I did not know anything about the Facebook live. It took us fifteen minutes to find his (the man’s) house. When we entered his house, his two kids were crying. The man had stepped out of his room and fell unconscious,” Kumar said.

“Fortunately, because of the lockdown norms and also because it was past midnight, we did not find any traffic (to the hospital). We managed to reach the AIIMS Trauma Centre within 15-20 minutes, where he was treated,” Kumar added.

By Friday evening, doctors at the hospital told the police the man’s condition was stable. He told the doctors that he was suffering from depression after his wife’s death in 2016 and that he cut himself with a blade after a fight with his neighbours. The reason for the fight are unclear.

He is now at the hospital getting treatment for depression, police said.