Lucknow: The fatal online Blue Whale game has claimed its first victim in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district, police said on Monday.
Parth Singh, 13, was found hanging in his bedroom in Maudaha village on Sunday night.
The police said the class sixth student had his father’s phone on his hand in which the game, which directs the player to commit suicide after 50 challenges, was on when the body was taken down.
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According to the family, Parth had been playing the Blue Whale game for the past few days.
When he was asked not to play, he started using his father’s mobile phone when he was not around or sleeping.
On Sunday evening, Parth was supposed to attend a friend’s birthday party but instead locked himself in the room.
An only child, when he did not open the door, his father, Vikram Singh, broke open the door and found him hanging.
Maudaha circle officer (CO) Abhishek Yadav said the suicide seems to have been triggered by the Blue Whale game and a probe is under way.
“We are sending IT experts to go through the mobile records and history,” he added.
The Director General of Police Sulkhan Singh, in a letter to all district police chiefs had asked for complete compliance to the order of the Union Government banning the dangerous game.
In West Bengal, an engineering student was stopped from killing himself after his college authorities alerted the Crime Investigation Department (CID) about his involvement in the Blue Whale Challenge.
A few days ago, the registrar of BB Institute of Technology contacted an officer of the agency about the suspicious behaviour of the student as a result of the deadly game, sources at The Cid West Bengal said on Monday.
The engineering student, a resident of South 24 Parganas district, was found to have reached the eighth level of the Blue Whale Challenge, reportedly a suicide game in which the player is given certain tasks to complete for a period of 50 days and the final task is committing suicide.
The player is also asked to share photos after finishing each challenge.
“You cannot ever come back. You will be compelled to kill yourself if you attempt to play the game. I am very lucky that my college authorities and friends as well as The Cid helped me overcome this situation through counselling and guidance,” the student said, showing the characteristic blue whale etched on the skin of his left forearm with a blade.
The state CID has been campaigning to generate awareness about the perils of the game.
The sudden popularity of the lethal online game in India had forced the government to issue directions to internet giants Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove links to it.
