Puri: A Class VII student committed suicide at his uncle’s house at Jena Sahi of Charinala under Sadar police limits here Wednesday. The police are probing whether the suicide has any connection with the online game Blue Whale Challenge.
Divya Sundar Mohapatra, a student of Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir at Harachandi Sahi, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in the house of his maternal uncle Shiv Prasad Mohapatra, a teacher by profession.
The minor boy used a towel to hang himself. His uncle rushed him to the district headquarters hospital in critical condition where doctors declared him dead. The police sent the body for post-mortem after registering a case of unnatural death. While the reason behind the suicide is still unclear, it is suspected that the online suicidal game is behind it.
Sources said Divya’s family lives in Tiadi Sahi under Town police limits. He went to his uncle’s house four days back. Divya’s uncle and aunt were away from home Wednesday morning while other family members were in the house.
Shiv Prasad came home at 4.30 pm and found the door of the room locked from inside. He peeped through the window and found Divya hanging from the ceiling fan. He broke open the grille and rushed him to hospital.
Shiv Prasad said, “Divya was a meritorious student. He was addicted to online games. However, after I came to know about the lethal Blue Whale game, I prevented him from playing online games on mobile. He was normal when I talked to him in the morning. I never thought he would take such an extreme step.”
Recently, three back-to-back cases of Blue Whale challenge came to light in the state. A school student in Baripada had cut his hand after playing the online game. Similarly, three engineering students in Bhadrak were trapped in the suicidal game. One of them was trying to cut his hand when his classmates spotted and rescued him. While the online game provokes the students to commit suicide, the intellectuals think that the state government should create awareness among the authorities in educational institutions in this regard.
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