Bhubaneswar: A 22-year-old youth allegedly hung himself at his house in Badu Sahi area of Old Town here Thursday. Police said Shashanka Shekhar Satpathy is suspected to have ended his life owing to the financial losses he had incurred over his online gaming addiction. IIC of Lingaraj police station Purna Chandra Pradhan said at around 4 am Shashanka’s family members found his bedroom door locked from inside. They grew suspicious when Shashanka did not respond to repeated knocks on the door. They then broke open the door to find Shashanka hanging from the ceiling fan by a cloth. Pradhan said an unnatural death case has been registered, while the postmortem reports are awaited. An officer at the police station said preliminary investigation revealed that Shashanka’s paternal aunt reprimanded him Wednesday night for playing online games till late hours, and asked him to sleep.
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However, Shashanka did not pay heed to her scolding and continued to be hooked to his smartphone. The family members have allegedly told the police that the deceased would be busy playing online games for hours together. He would often stay awake till late hours, caring little for the warnings and reprimands. Pradhan said some of Shashanka’s friends have told the police that the latter was in the habit of borrowing money from them on various pretexts. They said it could be possibly for footing his gaming bills. “However, they are all shocked at Shashanka’s decision to end life,” Pradhan added.
