Blue whale menace grips city

Months after Andheri’s 14-year-old Manpreet Singh, a class 9 student, jumped off the seventh-floor terrace of his building in July, the ministry of electronics and IT had directed Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove the links of the deadly Blue Whale Challenge, which has led several children in India and other countries to commit suicide. Singh was a participant in the deadly ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ that dares enthusiasts to undertake 50-odd challenges, the final one being suicide. Singh became the first Indian victim of the game. The police are struggling to find a way to deal with the by invitation only online game as it is not run via any site or app.

The last photo Manpreet Singh uploaded before jumping off the terrace.

Manpreet was part of the game, which was played between a close-knit group of people and upon an‘invitation only’ basis. The link to the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ was connecting the dots in the probe of Manpreet’s suicide.

While Manpreet’s parents were completely in the dark about their son’s online activities, his friends had confirmed that Manpreet was very keen on completing the 50 challenges.

Manpreet’s friends first took it very lightly, but when he started bragging about his achievements in the challenge, and started staying aloof, his friends realised that Manpreet had sunk deep in the game.

Minutes before jumping off the terrace of the seventh floor building, Manpreet had sent a text and a picture to one of his friends. It read, ‘Soon the only thing you would be left with is a picture of me’. Before his friend could react, Manpreet had switched off his phone, and jumped off the terrace.

After the incident, Meghwadi police had seized Manpreet’s phone, laptop, desktop computer and logged into his social networking websites to confirm his participation in the deadly game.