Days after a teacher saved a Class 7 student who was trying to jump off from the third floor of his school building in an attempt to complete the online self-harm game Blue Whale challenge in Indore of Madhya Pradesh, another incident – this time fatal – has been reported in Damoh town of the state.
Police say a Class 11 student committed suicide by jumping in front of the train on Saturday night. His friends have said that he used to play the Blue Whale game and asked them to take the challenges as well. He was the first one among them who played the game, they said, adding they did not know how he had downloaded it.
“On the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, the boy stood before a running train and was taking selfies. His body was found on the tracks this morning,” the additional superintendent of police (ASP) Arvind Dubey told.
He had reached the final stage of the online challenge and to accomplish it, left his home on a motorcycle last night. The boy reached a rail crossing close to Futera lake and after parking the two-wheeler near the tracks, he started clicking selfies before a running train and ended his life, ASP Dubey added.
A CCTV camera installed at a house near the railway crossing recorded the entire episode, he added. “We have registered a case and investigating the matter,” he said.
The family of the boy has not commented anything on the matter yet. The Superintendent of Police Vivek Agarwal said, “In our investigation the family members so far have said that they are not aware of the deceased playing Blue whale game, but we have seized the mobile of the victim and we are sending it to cyber forensic for data retrieval. After recovering the data we will be able to tell you what was the exact reason.”
Several cases linked to the Blue Whale challenge have been reported in India over the past weeks. Schools in Indore are holding awareness sessions on the Blue Whale challenge and similar games, government officials say. Parents are being counseled as well to keep tabs on their children’s online activities. Madhya Pradesh police too have appealed parents to keep a watch on what children do with smartphones or computers.
