The Cyber Cell of the Mumbai crime branch on Monday saved a 30-year-old man from Virar who was about to commit suicide after he lost his job in pandemic induced lockdown.
Hours after the victim posted his suicide note tagging Mumbai police, they kept him busy in talks and tracked him down. In the next couple of hours, the local police were at his doorsteps counselling him.
Around noon on Monday, a man (name withheld) tagged a suicide note to Mumbai Police in which he narrated how he was depressed after he ended up using the company's money for his rent and other expenses since he lost his job due to the pandemic two months ago.
The Mumbai police immediately responded to him on Twitter, saying "Your life is too precious. There’s nothing that cannot be overcome. We request you to stay calm, let’s meet, discuss and resolve. Remember, you are priceless to your loved ones. Please DM contact. Let’s talk.
"As soon as we received the alert, we started tracking the victim, meanwhile, we engaged him in talks so that he wouldn't take any extreme step and bought ourselves time. We tracked him down to Virar and alerted the local police which did the rest," said Rashmi Karandikar deputy commissioner of police, cyber.
The victim, a resident of Virar had worked at a car showroom in MIDC Andheri till October but lost his job due to lockdown. He reportedly used the customer's money of Rs 37,746 for paying off his rent and other expenses instead of depositing to the company account. After the revelation, the company halted his October salary and incentives of previous months, he stated in the note.
"Now I don't have anything to give them, they have taken a cheque from me and they are going to deposit it today, it will bounce and they will file a case against it. The owner wants to send me to jail and he will harass my family, once I get a job, I will return the money, but they have blacklisted me from the cooperates so that I won't get a job. Now I have no other option, I have to die," he wrote in the note.
His pending dues with his employer are almost the same which he owed to the company, while counselling the victim, we have also asked his former employer not to press the matter further, said a police officer.
