Drumil Modi, Pune
15-year-old boy commits suicide after allegedly playing the deadly “Blue Whale” game. As per the initial police investigation the boy’s name was Arya Srirao. He jumped off the 14th floor of a building in Pune. The suicide note he had left behind said “logout.”
The parents say that Arya has been spending a lot of time online playing games for the last few months, he also has been isolating himself spending more of his time on his laptop. Arya was in 10th grade and was a resident of Pimpri Chinchwad in Pune.
Swapna Gore the Deputy Commissioner of Police stated that they found the suicide note in one of Arya’s notebook mentioning “logout,” he also wrote ‘XD’ which could be an online game.
On further investigation the police found a pencil sketch of his apartment and gallery, and the specific spot he had picked to jump from. They also found some notes in the coding language and a list of players.
Considering the incident the boy’s father urged all the parents to be more aware of their kid’s online presence. He mentioned how he did not question his son’s need for privacy but as parents it is ideal to know what your kids are doing online. Cyber experts are helping with the investigation now as the parents did not know the laptop’s password.
Arya’s mother Swati Srirao found out about her boy’s death through the society’s WhatsApp group. As per Swait Srirao, Arya was an introvert and feared heights, the fact that her kid jumped off the 14th floor is unbelievable to her. On the day of the incident, she was taking care of her younger son who was not well.
Due to the incident, there has been a lot of chatter about “Blue Whale” game which in 2017 caused a worldwide stir among young adults. The game targeted youngsters and assigned players with tasks for the span of 50 days. The game usually started with tasks like wakeup in middle of the night and watch a horror movie and by the day 50 it would provoke the player to die by suicide as the final task.
The first victim in India of the “Blue Whale” game was Manpreet Singh Sahni of Mumbai. She was a 14-year-old school student. As per reports globally more than 100 children have been victims to this game.