Kaushambi (UP), Aug 19 (PTI): Acting swiftly on an alert from Meta, police here rescued a 20-year-old man who had threatened to consume poison to kill himself in an Instagram post, officials said on Tuesday.

On August 18, Ved Kumar Pal, from Audhan village in the Pipri area uploaded a video purportedly showing a bottle of poison with a caption in Hindi saying, "Tonight I will drink this poison and my story ends here."

Meta flagged the post and shared the video, mobile number and location details with the Uttar Pradesh Police headquarters in Lucknow. The information was then passed on to the Kaushambi social media cell, which alerted Pipri police station.

"A police team rushed to the man's house and managed to save him in time. He was counselled and later handed over to his family," a senior police officer said.

During counselling, Pal told police that he had picked up the cover of a pesticide bottle his father was using in the fields and made the Instagram post without serious intent.

He then gave a written and oral undertaking that he would not repeat such behaviour. His family thanked the police for their swift response, officials added.

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New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.

BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.

Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.

Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.

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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."

"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.

The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.

The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.

Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".

"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."