Identity of mentally unstable Odisha man traced via FB posts

Chennai: The identity of a man was found through Facebook after the quick-thinking police at the Madipakkam police station made posts seeking information.

The incident occurred when Madipakkam police on Tuesday picked up a man, who looked mentally ill, from the Madipakkam bus stop after bystanders, suspected him to be a vehicle thief. He had been staring at vehicles, parked by the bus stop for hours, they had complained.

The police then picked up the man and questioned him, during which they found that he could speak fluent English. He also identified himself as Devendra Tiyan from Odisha, police sources said.

The police then ran a search on social networking sites like Facebook where they found his profile. They then put out a post through his profile requesting any information on the man. Soon, a man named Chandrashekar who said he worked in Chennai confirmed his identity and gave the police Devendra’s Odisha address and telephone number. Soon, the parents were contacted, a police source said. The parents said that their son who had completed studying at an ITI institute had travelled to Kerala in search of a job along with an agent who turned out to be a fraud. The man ran away with Devendra’s certificates and money, the parents had said.

Devendra was overcome with shock and had become mentally unstable, the police say. They are unsure of how Devendra had reached Chennai. The police requested the parents to collect Devendra from the station. As they could not come, Chandrashekar, along with Devendra’s uncle from Andhra Pradesh came to police station on Wednesday.