How Facebook alert from California helped cops foil suicide bid in Ghaziabad

IANS

Ghaziabad, February 2

A Facebook alert helped save a youth’s life in Ghaziabad.

The young man was about to commit suicide on an Instagram live, when Meta Headquarters, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram based in California, reviewed the video and sent an alert to the Uttar Pradesh police, who reached his house by tracing his mobile’s location in around 15 minutes.

The 23-year-old has been identified as Abhay Shukla, who was counselled for 6 hours before being sent back to his family.

The UP police had tied up with Meta in March last year to alert them immediately if a post related to suicide was seen on Facebook or Instagram.

On Tuesday night, Shukla came live on Instagram and started tying a noose.

Seeing the video, the headquarters sent an email alert to the social media centre of the state’s police department, along with Shukla’s registered mobile number.

The social media centre transferred the alert to the Ghaziabad Police Commissionerate, when the phone’s location was found to be in the city.

The message was then forwarded to Vijay Nagar police station.

Shukla is a resident of Kannauj and currently lives in Vijay Nagar area of the state.

He worked in Gurugram’s Cashify company and left his job to start his own business in the same field.

As per the police, Shukla took the extreme step when he had to borrow Rs 90,000 from his mother, who had saved the amount for his sister’s marriage, to compensate for the loss he suffered in his venture. IANS