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Anuradha Varanasi
Anuradha Varanasi

TEEN SUICIDE

No concrete evidence of blue whale challenge, say police

blue-whale

In a shocking incident, a 14-year-old boy jumped to his death from the terrace of the seven-storey building he used to live in with his parents and two sisters in Mumbai. The suicide victim, who was identified as Manpreet Singh, had posted a picture on Facebook of his feet dangling off the parapet of the terrace before committing suicide with a caption that read, "Soon the only thing you will be left with is a picture of me". Soon after the news broke out, speculations arose that the young teenager had decided to commit suicide as he was a part of an infamous online game known as the Blue Whale suicide challenge, which has reportedly claimed the lives of 130 youngsters in Russia, from where the dangerous online game is believed to have originated from.

According to a Reddit user who posted the entire list of the 50 challenges given by the game's curator, which have to be completed by the participant in 50 days, the first task is carving f57 on your hand and sending the picture to the curator. The second "challenge" includes waking up at 4.20am and watching psychedelic and scary videos that is sent to the participant by the curator. This is followed by the participants being told to cut themselves with a razor on their arms and legs and even going up to the extent of cutting themselves repeatedly if they are not ready to "become a whale". However, the Meghwadi police have so far been unable to find any concrete evidence that Singh was a victim of this gruesome online challenge. A police officer who is included in the investigation of this case said, "His parents are not in a state to give their statement yet and the boy's last rites were conducted in Nashik on Sunday."

While the challenges include carving a whale on the hand and also the word 'yes' on the leg, a doctor from Siddharth hospital in Goregaon where Singh's post mortem was conducted said, "He had suffered from external and internal injuries due to the fall from the seventh floor of the building. However, we did not observe any self inflicted cuts or injuries on his arms or legs." Other than this, the doctor further added that the teenager had not consumed any drugs or alcohol before committing suicide. However, the 20 second challenge on the list of 50 tasks assigned by the curators of the Blue Whale challenge is "Go to a roof and sit on the edge with your legs dangling". The picture posted by Manpreet on social media shows his feet dangling from the terrace of his building.

According to the police official from Meghwadi police station, Manpreet had informed his friends on a Whatsapp group that he was going to commit suicide but they didn't take him seriously as they thought he was only joking. Dr Sagar Mundada, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist said, "People who end up playing these games have an inherent emotional vulnerability. Teenagers especially have unlimited access to the internet and lack mature judgement skills which is a recipe for disaster."

"The Blue Whale challenge shows the level of involvements youngsters have in these virtual platforms where they forget the difference between real life and virtual life. This is due to the total lack of importance given to developing adequate and mature coping mechanisms. Instead, children need to be taught healthy coping mechanisms from childhood itself," added Mundada.

Previous victims of the Blue Whale challenge had shared their mobile numbers and email addresses with the curators of the game who would regularly message them and even threaten to harm their families if they wanted to back out from the dangerous online game. Other challenges include things like finding the highest roof and standing on the edge for sometime, while the 50th challenge dictates that the participant should jump from a high building and take their life. By the 26 th challenge itself, the curator tells the participant the date of their death, which they have to accept, followed by not talking to anyone for an entire day. 

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Topics : #Mumbai

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