Mumbai: The nasty face of Online Gaming came into view when a 14 year old boy, Manpreet Sahans, committed suicide by jumping off from terrace of his seven-storey building in Andheri allegedly as a challenge in ‘Blue Whale Challenge’- an online game.
The game has been in news for being linked with suicides of teenagers worldwide. However, if so, this will be the first case in India. As is being alleged, Manpreet, a 9th class student, had informed his friends that he would not able to attend the school today as he was playing the ‘Blue Whale Game’. In Russia, where the game is suspected to be originated, it has already claimed more than 130 lives. As of now, the police have registered an accidental death case. Manpreet’s parents are in a state of shock said there was no indication that he was depressed or was participating in any such game.
As per the information received by from the sources, the boy had been using the internet to search for ways to jump from the terrace. This search was done by him two days before he committed suicide.
On the day of the suicide, Sahans went up to the terrace and sat on the parapet for over 20 minutes. While sitting on the parapet he was continuously speaking to his friends on social media where he informed that he is going to commit suicide, but no one took him seriously and thought that it might be a joke.
The boy, just before jumping, posted a picture sitting on terrace parapet. The picture was captioned: “Soon the only thing you would be left with is a picture of me.” One of the police officers informed that a man from another building saw him sitting on parapet and asked him to get down. Manpreet even took a selfie with the person from where he was sitting and posted it on a group. The man on the other building left from his terrace to save him. However, he jumped down from the terrace when he saw the person coming his way. He was immediately carried to hospital where he was declared dead.
Blue Whale Challenge: Originated in Russia
Cops are yet to determine what drove Manpreet to take the extreme step. There are no other reported cases of Blue Whale deaths in India. The game is said to have begun in Russia in 2013, and allegedly caused its first suicide in 2015. The origins of Blue Whale—and, exactly, what the challenge itself entails—are difficult to pin down. Players in the game, according to initial reports, agree to follow a set of instructions—alleged to include self-mutilation—over the course of 50 days. Ostensibly, the final instruction is to commit suicide. The challenge starts by asking participants via social media to draw a blue whale on a piece of paper, the police said. The participants are then asked to carve the whale onto their body.
