Bhubaneswar: A 22‑year‑old man from Balangir district went missing after texting his mother a desperate message, vowing to end his life by jumping into the Burla canal because he couldn’t bear watching her writhe in pain while battling cancer.
Sourav Sambit Tripathy, a resident of Mahalakhmi Nagar in Balangir, sent the poignant message— “Mom, I can’t bear to see you suffer… I’ll end my life by jumping into the Burla canal”—to his hospitalized mother on the evening of October 22.
Sourav’s mother, who is undergoing treatment for cancer at Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences And Research (VIMSAR), alerted family members. Though his family members made desperate search for Sourav went fruitless.
Frantic relatives scoured local spots before lodging a missing-person report at Burla police station late that night.
Acting on the SMS content and data from Sourav’s last known mobile location, a joint team of police and fire brigade personnel, initiated a search operation in the Burla canal to trace Sourav.
The team began operation at Vishnu Mandir Ghat and extended downstream. Till the last report came in, Sourav remained untraceable.
