A 15-year-old boy, allegedly influenced by the deadly "Blue Whale" game, has died by suicide after jumping from the 14th floor of a building in Pune, said police. The minor left a note which had "logout" written on it.
Initial police investigations revealed that the boy, Arya Srirao, had been increasingly addicted to online games in the past few months, isolating himself and spending hours on his laptop. Arya was a class-10 student and a resident of Pimpri Chinchwad in Pune.
"We have found a purported suicide note from his notebook mentioning 'log out'. He also wrote 'XD' which could be the online game he was playing. We are investigating the exact trigger behind the suicide," Swapna Gore, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) told news agency PTI.
An in-depth examination of his notebook has revealed maps of his own house, notes in coding language and a list of players. A paper recovered from his room mentioned a multiplayer combat game and also showed a pencil sketch of his apartment and gallery, specifying where he needed to jump from.
The boy's father, Umesh Srirao, has urged all parents to be more mindful of their children's actions in the wake of this tragedy. He mentioned that his son had been hiding many of his possessions for a few months, even taking steps such as deleting all the search history of his laptop.
Cyber experts are helping further with the investigation as the password of his devices was not known to his parents.
His mother Swati Srirao came to know of her son's death through the society's WhatsApp group. "Arya was a boy who hesitated to talk and was afraid to jump even from a low height, yet he jumped from the 14th floor," she said. She was taking care of her younger son on the day of the incident as he was sick with a fever.
She also said of Arya's increasing interest in morbid thoughts and music as he reportedly used to say things like: "Life and death are the same."
The incident has reignited discussions on the "Blue Whale" game, an online game which has also been called a "suicide game", which had caused a stir worldwide in 2017. It was a social media phenomenon which targeted youngsters, assigning them a series of tasks over a span of 50 days, and ultimately provoking them to die by suicide as a part of the final task.
The first victim of the Blue Whale challenge in India was in July 2017. It was a 14-year-old school student Manpreet Singh Sahni of Mumbai who jumped from the 7th floor and died by suicide. According to a report, more than 100 children have died due to this game in Russia, Ukraine, India and America.