In yet another incident that is suspected to have links to the infamous Blue Whale Challenge, a 24-year-old woman in Chennai jumped off her seventh-floor apartment in the Virugambakkam area on Monday, August 21, around 11 pm. While the woman, identified as J Niveditha, managed to survive, she is said to have sustained severe back injuries after landing on top of a car.
She is currently admitted in a private hospital in the city and the doctors have said that she is in serious condition, but is out of danger. She reportedly lives with her parents and is studying for a master's degree in computer applications.
Speaking of the incident, a police officer told the Times of India: "Witnesses said Niveditha leaped off a balcony from her 7th-floor apartment. She appears to have acted deliberately, opening a grille door to get to the balcony."
"A few neighbours and a security guard at the apartment complex heard a loud sound and found Niveditha bleeding profusely on the roof of a car. The woman's parents and neighbours took her to a private hospital nearby."
The suicide bid is now being linked to the Blue Whale Challenge, also called the Blue Whale Game, after neighbours said that the woman had been looking depressed for the past few days and might have been playing the online game.
However, Niveditha's parents have said that they knew nothing about their daughter playing the game. The police are investigating the matter and will go through Niveditha's online as well as call data.
"Niveditha's parents said they knew nothing about her playing the 'Blue Whale' game online but we are checking call data from her cellphone to see for ourselves," the officer added. He also said that they are waiting for the woman to regain consciousness and would then speak to her. "We are also looking at the possibility that other causes prompted the suicide."
This comes after a 16-year-old boy was found hanging at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and his mother claimed that he had been playing the online game.
While the Blue Whale Challenge first seemed to have started in Russia, it seems to slowly be spreading to other countries including India. The creator of the game Philipp Budeikin has been in jail for a few months now, but that hasn't stopped it from targeting vulnerable social media users. According to Metro UK, Budeikin has admitted that he created the game and convinced about 16 girls to end their lives.
"Do something beautiful at least once in your life, it is so good to die young. Life is awful, it will not get better. You are rare, a selected one," is what he told his victims. However, the 21-year-old seems to have no remorse and instead explained that he was "cleansing the society" of "biological waste" who were "happy to die."
