Alcoholic live streams suicide on FB in Tamil Nadu, video goes viral

37-year-old Ramkumar, a driver by profession, addicted to alcohol and hailing from Dharapuram in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu committed suicide in an inebriated condition, streaming his act live on Facebook. The tragic ending to his life was watched by a few of his friends, who immediately contacted his wife Suhasini, who saw the visuals of her husband's death after it was all over.

Anupparpalayam police personnel, the location under which Ramkumar's residence comes under have booked a case and are investigating the incident. According to the deceased's family members, the former had got in touch with his father in his home town and had told him he was about to end his life and that he should take care of his grandson who is 13 years of age. He had also left behind a suicide note that he was not keen in continuing to live in this wretched world and hence has decided to end his life.

The regional media has reacted with alarm with increasing incidents of this nature, which is exhibitionist and adds to the voyeuristic pleasure of content consumers across social media. Statistics on social media reveals that the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu along with eastern states of WestBengal, Tripura and Mizoram have a suicide rate of greater than 16 while it is less than 4 in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Puducherry reported the highest suicide rate at 36.8 per 100,000 people, followed by Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The lowest suicide rates were reported in Bihar (0.8 per 100,000), followed by Nagaland and Manipur.