Lucknow: Acting on a suicide alert received from Meta, Lucknow Police on Oct 15 traced and reached a 26-year-old delivery worker within about 10 minutes and prevented him from allegedly jumping into a river after he posted a video on Instagram expressing suicidal thoughts following a domestic dispute, officials said.
Meta emailed an alert to Social Media Centre at UP Police headquarters at 3.51 pm, according to officials. As per official figures, police interventions based on such alerts helped save 4,071 people between Jan 1, 2023, and Oct 10, 2026. The man told officers he worked as a delivery worker and had been facing severe mental stress due to ongoing conflict with his wife and in-laws.
Police said the man, a resident of the Saadatganj police station area, uploaded a video stating he was under acute distress after an argument involving his wife and her family. Officials said they found him standing on a bridge, crying, looking toward the river and speaking to himself, with his conduct suggesting he might jump. In the clip, he reportedly indicated he intended to end his life. The post was flagged by Meta’s safety systems, triggering an alert to Uttar Pradesh Police headquarters. Senior officers were informed immediately. On the directions of DGP Rajeev Krishna, Social Media Centre used the mobile number shared in the alert to help trace the individual’s location and relay the information to Lucknow Police Commissionerate for urgent action. A Saadatganj police team — sub-inspector Yogendra Kumar and constables Ashish Pal and Avneesh Kumar — first went to the man’s residence and informed family members about the Instagram video. Police and relatives then rushed to the spot where he was believed to be heading. The personnel intervened, pulled him back from the edge and shifted him to a safer place.