After creating widespread menace in Russia, the US, and the UK, the Blue Whale Challenge seems to be having serious implications in India. The game has reportedly been claiming one life after another, the latest one being a 13-year-old in Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur district.
Parth Singh, a class six student of Jaipuria Public School, was found hanging in his bedroom in Maudaha village on Sunday, August 27, night and apparently committed suicide as part of the online game. The police said that Parth had his father's phone in his hand, in which the game was on. This was noticed when the body of the boy was being taken down.
"We are sending IT experts to go through the mobile records and history," Maudaha circle officer (CO) Abhishek Yadav told IANS.
There have been several cases of teenagers and young adults taking their lives of late and many of these deaths have been linked to the Blue Whale Challenge. Several cases have emerged from Indore, West Bengal, Chennai and Kerala to name a few.
Just a few days ago, it was said that the family members and the police were able to save a 17-year-old in West Bengal's West Midnapore district who was said to have been playing the online game. Raunak Singha was reportedly taking up tasks, which is a part of the game, under the pretext of studying with his Facebook friends.
However, there was a change in his behaviour and his father is said to have noticed scars and cuts on his arm, after which he alerted the police and told them that Raunak could have been playing the online game. The boy is said to have carved "F-57" on his arm as one of the tasks.
Speaking about the game and how he started playing Raunak told the police that he had got a link to the game and has downloaded it, after which the group had gotten in touch with him and assigned tasks.
"All of a sudden from nowhere, I got a link. When I logged into the link, I received a call from the creator. He gave me several instructions. He made me hate my society and brainwashed me. And then I started obeying the rules one after another. I was, at first, asked to engrave a code, F 57, take a picture of that and upload it on the site. So I took the picture and sent it to them. After which, they replied that if they won't like it, I'll have to do it again," Raunak said, according to India Today.
"The second day, they sent me horror movies at 4 30 AM and I was asked to watch those. After completing the second task, I was asked to stay quiet. They instructed me to make sounds like a whale for the third task. I was not allowed to talk about this to anybody, not to my parents or my friends. I spoke to a friend about making a whale's sound and he shared this with everybody."
There's more than meets the eye
While the parents and his close friends panicked and raised an alarm, there seems to be more to the story as the police believe that Raunak was faking it all along. Superintendent of Police of West Midnapore district, Bharati Ghosh, told the website that he made up the story "to grab the attention of his Facebook friends and become a hero in the society."
"He was concocting a story to grab the attention of his Facebook friends and become a hero in the society. Initially, the logo [code] on his hand was made using sauce by one of his female friends from another district on Facebook which he copied on his hand by using a blade to cut into the skin. We have taken his statement in written and have videographed it too."
However, in light of this incident, the police is said to be keeping an eye on the boy and is also monitoring his social media activities.
