'Heartbroken' Messi fan in Kerala missing, suicide note found

Unable to bear the thrashing Argentina received at the hands of Croatia late on Thursday, a diehard Lionel Messi fan here has gone missing, leaving behind a suicide note saying he has nothing to look forward to now. A search operation is on.

A team of police divers and locals on Friday searched the Meenachil river that flows by Arumannoor near here.

Binu Alex, 30, who was last seen watching the FIFA World Cup match, according to his parents, has been missing from the house since 4 a.m., a police officer, who did not want to be named, told IANS.

"A quick search revealed a suicide note in which he says he is leaving the world as he has nothing more to watch and see," said the officer.

A close relative of Alex told IANS that he was a hardcore Messi fan and his mobile phone had a picture of Messi as the wallpaper.

"Yesterday, he purchased a T shirt like the one worn by Messi and sat down to watch the match. In the morning when his mother got up at 4 a.m to prepare food for Alex, she saw that the back door of the kitchen was open and immediately called her husband.

"They then went to check on Alex and found that he was missing," said the relative, adding that police was called then.

Police arrived with a sniffer dog who ran towards the river which is flowing in full spate on account of the rains in the past few days. Some divers searched in the water but failed to find the body.

Alex was unmarried and works as an accountant in a private company here.

--IANS

sg/him/vd