less than 24 hours after a mother in Thiruvananthapuram made a shocking ‘revelation’ that her 16-year-old son had committed suicide 20 days ago most probably to complete the “final task” in the online killer game, Blue Whale Challenge, another mother in Kannur told the media on Wednesday that her son who committed suicide in May could have been a victim of the Challenge, generating fears that perhaps the game has invaded Kerala in an alarming way.
However, the Kerala Police maintained that no game-caused suicide had been confirmed in the State and that there was no need to be anxious about the killer game even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the State Government was doing everything it could to block the killer game and that there was need for caution while indulging in cyberspace activities.
ITI student MK Sawant of Kolassery near Thalassery in Kannur district was found hanging in his house on May 19. “I came to suspect that my son too could have been a victim of this game after I saw the news report on Tuesday about the Thiruvananthapuram boy’s death. My son also used to show signs similar to those shown by that boy,” Sawant’s mother said.
Manoj C Manu, a Plus 1 student from Vilappilsala in Thiruvananthapuram, had committed suicide by hanging in his house on July 26 at the end of a series of horrible acts that seemed to conform to the tasks being assigned by the killer game, according to his mother Anu. The police have intensified investigation into the mysterious suicide.
According to Sawant’s mother, she and her husband began to notice strange changes in their son’s behavior three months before his death. “He used to spend whole nights playing some computer game and I now recall that he was playing Blue Whale or something like that. We had thought his abnormal behavior was related to some psychological problems,” she said.
According to her, Sawant, their only son, had lost appetite, would remain awake the whole night, would go to sleep only in the morning and limited having food to once a day. The parents took him for counseling several times thinking that he was in some kind of depression, but the effort failed to produce any positive result, she told a TV channel.
“He slashed his arm at least twice and the wound had to be sutured once without anesthesia as he was allergic to medicines. He said he had made the wounds using a blade (which IT experts say is self-mutilation prescribed by the game). Once he had used divider needles to inflict scars on his chest. I used to force him to sleep in my room at nights out of fear,” she said.
The mother said Sawant had grown extremely intolerant after he started playing the game and would become angry if the parents tried to advise him.
She said, “Once he just disappeared from the house and we found him sitting on the sea-bridge in Thalassery. When his father caught him, he threw his books and bag into the sea.”
The Thalassery police had, after their inquiries which included examination of the call data records of his mobile phone, concluded that Sawant could have taken the extreme step due to failure in a relationship. “But I strongly suspect that my son had been playing this game and he was a victim of it,” said the mother.
According to State Director General of Police loknath Behera, there was no need of anxiety about Blue Whale Challenge in Kerala. No game-related suicide had been confirmed in the State so far, he said. There are reports that several hundred persons in the State could have downloaded the game but the police are rejecting such a possibility.
Chief Minister Pinarayi said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the cyber wing of the State police had already started taking action to block the spread of the game. “Everyone should take the initiative to create caution and sense in the cyberspace,” he said, adding that the Government had written a letter to the Centre on the matter and that it had responded positively.
However, a Kochi-based IT engineer said it was too early to come to a conclusion on whether or not the killer game had really made an invasion into the State. “It could have. In my opinion, blocking sites or deleting links may provide some relief but it is not going to serve the purpose. There could be several ways for the game to find its way to reach ‘clients’,” he said.