Patna: Following a young man’s suicide that he posted live on Facebook, disorder analysts have raised alarm over “copycat suicides”.
According to reports, Gagan Singh, 22, a resident of Banka district, fell in love with a college girl and wanted to marry her. When the girl’s parents found out know about their relationship, they brought her back home and didn’t allow her to meet him.
Subsequently, the youth tried to contact her but her parents strongly objected to his move and also allegedly threatened him with dire consequences after which he fell into a depression.
On Sunday night, he committed suicide by hanging himself live on Facebook. In the video, Singh is seen looping the rope around the ceiling fan and then kissing it before tightening it around his neck.
Before hanging himself, Singh also posted two letters on Facebook wherein he said he was in a relationship with the girl for the past four years and his parents also agreed to the alliance but the girl’s parents strongly opposed it. The victim’s father is a farmer. The police have recovered the body and handed it to the parents after a postmortem.
A similar incident was reported from Patna in January last year when a young man shot himself in the head while on a video chat with his girlfriend. The victim was apparently frustrated after failing in love, police say. Many such live suicides have been reported from various parts of the country in recent months.
Psychologists are alarmed at such incidents and have described them as “copycat suicides”.
“It is strange that youth are committing suicides over petty issues after watching such suicides on the social media. They are nothing but copycat suicides. In a bid to getting themselves noticed by the society, they are forgetting the fact that they are finishing themselves,” explained psychologist Dr Vinay Kumar.
