‘Solve this puzzle’, wrote 10-year-old victim in suicide note

SHIMLA: Two days after a 10-yearold student of Gurukul Public School, Deha, in Shimla district, was found hanging from the storeroom of his house, it is still not clear whether he was the victim of the internet game, the Blue Whale Challenge.

In his suicide note, the victim had challenged everyone, including the police, to solve the mystery of his death.

The last line in the suicide note found from his room says, “Solve this puzzle”. He also wrote that no one loved him. The student was found hanging from the storeroom in his house on Tuesday. He was taken to Theog Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

The suicide note, written on a school notebook, carries a handdrawn puzzle captioned, “Ye puzzle suljhao (Solve this puzzle)”. The victim also writes, “Slitting veins etc is not a punishment. I will punish myself by hanging.”

The mention of slitting veins has made the police suspect the Blue Whale challenge angle in the case. “It wasn’t possible for him to play the game. He did not have access to either internet or mobile phone for long,” a police officer said. “However for the last few days he used to play some game on the mobile phone of a carpenter working in their house.”

The police are yet to register a case and are investigating the matter. A team headed by assistant sub-inspector Chet Ram visited the spot on Wednesday. “So far there is no evidence of Blue Whale Challenge. We are investigating the case,” said SP Shimla Soumya Sambasivan.

Incidentally, the school management had organised an awareness campaign about the perils of the Blue Whale Challenge a day before the purported suicide. “He was not amongst those who said they play any games on phone; no one mentioned the blue whale game,” said Gian Singh, managing director of the school.