Cannot get out of Blue Whale alive, says victim’s note

CHENNAI: Blue Whale is not a game but a disaster.

A 19-year-old college student found hanging from a ceiling fan in his Madurai home on Wednesday scrawled these lines about the addictive and dangerous Blue Whale Challenge online game responsible for scores of teenage deaths around the world, including India.

J Vighnesh said in his note: “You can enter it, but cannot exit the game.” He could be Tamil Nadu’s first casualty of the game that provokes players to do selfdestructive tasks for 50 days before taking the final step of death by suicide. Police in the southern state said on Thursday they are investigating the contact numbers on the teenager’s mobile phone and members of a WhatsApp group he was a part of.

According to Madurai police superintendent Manivannan, a tattoo of a whale made using a sharp object was found on his left hand. “The players etch the picture of a whale on their arm … this is a sure-shot indication of impending danger to the life of teenagers,” he said.

The second-year BCom student of Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College used his mother’s sari to hang himself.

His distraught mother told a private television channel she saw strange marks on his body and asked him about it. “He told me, ‘It is nothing Amma, nothing will happen to me’,” she said.

She discovered about three days ago that her son was hooked on the deadly internet game and said around 75 children were in group playing the game. “I request the government to save these children. No mother should face the misfortune of losing a child.”