After alert from Google about ‘suicide’ search, Interpol & Mumbai police save man from ending his life

As a suicide prevention step, whenever such a search is done online, Google informs USA’s National Central Bureau (NCB), the focal point for Interpol in the US. The Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai, is also the official Interpol Liaison Officer (ILO) for Mumbai. There is a police inspector ranked officer assigned by the crime branch who reacts instantly to emails sent to the crime branch by Interpol.

The Interpol alert also has the Internet Protocol (IP) of the person doing the search. In this case, since it was the northern suburbs of the city, the alert was passed on to Crime Branch (Unit XI) under whose jurisdiction the area falls.

Based on the IP address, the police team managed to track him down on Tuesday. The police found the man hails from Rajasthan and had been living with his relatives near Mumbai for the past few years.

An officer said his mother, who lived in Mumbai, was arrested nearly two years ago in connection with a case under Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) and has been behind bars. The man who has a diploma lost his job nearly six months ago and was finding it difficult to get another job. “Hence, he could not gather money to bail out his mother. Stressed out by these factors he contemplated committing suicide,” the officer said.

According to the officer, the police team counselled the man that the problems were temporary and could be easily resolved. They then informed his cousin and asked him to take care of the man. The police also told the man that they would help him look for a job.

This is, however, not the first time that technology along with human intervention has helped prevent a suicide. In February this year, alerted by US-NCB, the Mumbai crime branch traced and counselled a 25-year-old Jogeshwari resident, who wanted to end his life.

He had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh for some online courses and borrowed Rs 30,000 from one of his friends to buy a new mobile. Worried that he would be unable to make the payment and his parents would be upset with him, he was looking up ways online to die by suicide.

Apart from this, there have been instances where the Mumbai police have prevented suicides after people have posted their intention to do so on social media platforms due to financial problems. In February this year, a 26-year-old had tweeted about dying by suicide asking that his organs be donated. The Mumbai crime branch tracked him through the night as his location kept changing, and eventually tracked him down at Karjat railway station, where he was counselled.