Authorities in Indore and Pune claim to have rescued two students of class VII and IX from an alleged bid to complete a deadly online suicide dare, believed to be the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’. While the first incident relates to Madhya Pradesh’s Indore where a class VII student was rescued at the last moment just as he tried to jump off the third floor of his school building, the second relates to a class IX boy from Solapur in Maharashtra who left home to complete a 'Blue Whale Challenge' task, and was rescued by the police on his way to Pune.
The police in Indore said that the child was playing the game on his father's mobile phone for a long time, but the parents had no clue. Farooq, the PT teacher at the school, told ANI he rushed to save the boy after he spotted him trying to jump off the third floor of the building while two other students were trying to stop him.
The child and his classmates claim he was playing the Blue Whale challenge, which is suspected to have led over 100 youngsters to commit suicide all over the world, police are skeptical because the boy's body doesn't bear the 50 cuts (one for each challenge) participants are supposed to make to finally depict a whale's shape, reported Times Of India.
The report said that the child admitted that it was his 50th dare - the Blue Whale game lasts 50 days, with one dare for each day - and that he was "asked to kill himself for failing the last challenge".
The incident from Solapur is of a 14-year-old boy, who left home to complete a task given to him in the online game 'Blue Whale Challenge', and was rescued by the police on his way to Pune, PTI reported.
The district police yesterday intercepted a Pune-bound state transport bus in which the teenager was travelling, near Bhigwan on an information given by their Solapur counterparts.
"As soon as we were informed by our counterparts in Solapur, we intercepted the bus and rescued the boy, who was on his way to complete a task given by the Blue Whale Challenge game," a Bhigwan police station officer said.
He said the boy appeared "lost" and was silent when the police took him with them. "The boy's businessman father came to the police station and took him home," the officer said.
According to him, the Class 9 student was addicted to the game, where a player is given different tasks by his handlers. "After the boy went missing, his parents started inquiring with his friends when they came to know that he was playing the 'Blue Whale Challenge'," the official said.
The incidents come as a warning sign of the impact the game has had on teenagers. Recently, a teenager addicted to the Blue Whale Challenge game had ended his life by jumping off a building in Mumbai.
The Blue Whale Game also "Blue Whale Challenge" is an Internet "game" allegedly comprising a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators during a 50-day period, with the final challenge requiring the player to commit suicide.
The deadly game, ostensibly created by a former convict in Russia, psychologically provoke players to indulge in daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before finally taking the “winning” step of killing themselves. Each task needed to be filmed and shared as “proof”.
(With agencies)
