Kottayam: Dinu Alex, an ardent fan of Lionel Messi whose body was recovered on Sunday two days after he went missing, was to take up a government job in six months.
Dinu was 393th on the LDC rank list for 800 openings in Kerala government and was waiting for an appointment order. He was also planning to get married once he got the job.
Dinu was an ardent lover of football and native ball game right from a young age and used to visit several places to see tournaments, said his relatives, who never thought that the words "I will do it" on a book would be a pointer to his death.
For Dinu, after Christ, Messi was his god. More than Argentina, Dinu was a fan of Messi and had been following the football star since 2015. He became a diehard fan of Messi after reading his biography and watching his videos by downloading them.
Only after Dinu went missing that locals came to know that he was such a big fan of the Argentinian player. His relatives had found notes from his books, which included his modified name 'Dinu Messi Alex'. Dinu had to visit four shops in the city looking for a jersey with the name of Messi on it. Before jumping into the river, he had safely kept the jersey and a phone cover that had a photo of Messi. Dinu's colleagues said that since he couldn't find such a mobile phone cover from a shop in the town, Dinu had ordered it online.
Initially, there were doubts of Dinu placing bets on World Cup games, but the police ruled it out after preliminary inquiry. The police might examine his WhatsApp messages among other things to unravel any mystery behind his death.