One more dead, govt orders Blue Whale ban
The mother of a teenage boy in Kerala said her son died in July playing the dangerous and addictive Blue Whale Challenge online game, which the government banned on Tuesday.
The remarks of C Anu, a software engineer, follow a spate of attempted suicide across India by boys hooked on the game responsible for scores of teenage deaths around the world.
The tragedies and a growing call to ban the game prompted the government to direct internet majors Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove the links of Blue Whale Challenge and the like.
The game provokes players to do daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before taking the “winning” step of death by suicide. The player is asked to film and share photos after finishing each level as proof.
The 16-year-old Manjo C Manu of Thiruvananthapuram was found hanging from a ceiling fan of his home on July 26.
“He told me he came across the game last November and we tried our best to dissuade him. He developed a strange behaviour … used to go and sit in graveyards at night and once jumped into a river during a holiday,” his mother said. But police won’t confirm that Blue Whale killed the boy. According to inspector general of police Manoj Abraham, there’s no proof to link the death to the killer game.
If Blue Whale killed Manju, he could be the first Indian casualty of the game. His mother said traces of the levels he crossed were found on his mobile phone.
Besides him, school students in Mumbai, Pune, Indore and Dehradun either killed themselves or were saved before they jumped off buildings on instruction from the game’s promoters.
CONTINUED ON P 6
teenage girl returning home after attending the Independence Day function at her school in Chandigarh was allegedly sexually assaulted by a man in a park here on Tuesday, police said. A case of rape has been registered.
The incident happened at the children’s traffic park, located in the heart of the city, this morning. “The accused, aged around 40 years, forcibly took the 12 -yearold girl to the park, sexually assaulted her and fled,” investigating officer in the case, sub-inspector Kuldeep, said.
The victim, a student of Class 8 in a government school, was taken to a government hospital in Sector 16 for a medical examination, the officer said, adding a case has been registered.
When contacted, Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Eish Singhal said further probe in the case was under progress.
Meanwhile, another woman has complained of being chased by three men in a car, barely over a week after the incident of stalking of an IAS officer’s daughter.
In her complaint, the woman alleged that while returning home from market in a twowheeler she was chased by three men in a car from Sector 36 till Sector 40 here on Monday night, the police said on Tuesday.
The woman from Hisar who has been staying here as a paying guest noted down the vehicle’s number and informed police, DSP Deepak Yadav said.
A little over a week ago, the 29-year-old daughter of a senior IAS officer was stalked by Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son and his friend.
INTERNET MAJORS GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP, MICROSOFT, YAHOO AND INSTAGRAM HAVE BEEN DIRECTED TO TAKE DOWN LINKS TO THE SUICIDE GAME