By Matters India Reporter
Agartala: Alert friends have saved the life of a youth in Tripura, an alleged victim of Blue Whale menace.
Santosh Debnath is currently undergoing treatment after a failed suicide attempt in a hospital of Belonia, a town of the northeastern Indian state. Police on October 9 said Debnath was admitted to the hospital with serious cut injuries on his body.
The 26-year-old father of 18-month-old baby girl is reportedly the third victim of the Blue Whale Game in Tripura. Earlier in September, one girl and a boy cut their hands to draw the ‘blue whale’ as part of the game.
Known also as the Blue Whale Challenge, the 21st-century social network phenomenon that began in 2016, consists of a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators over a 50-day period, with the final challenge requiring the player to commit suicide.
Debnath, a resident of Banshpadua village near Belonia, tried to end his life by cutting his stomach. Police are keeping tight vigil over him in the hospital.
Interrogation revealed that he started playing the game 16 days ago after getting a link through his ‘Facebook’ account. He completed all the rounds in 16 days and was asked by the game’s administrators to commit suicide by jumping into a pond.
According to the youth, he made several attempts to comply with the ‘instruction’ since October 6. Earlier, Santosh cut his palms by tightly holding broken glasses as was instructed by the game administrators. Finally, he cut his stomach on October 8. Doctors said Santosh received six stitches.
His friends had observed his abnormal behavior and kept an eye on him. They managed to prevent him from committing suicide. Following his erratic behavior, friends searched his mobile phone and found that he was playing the deadly game.
Debal Pal, one of the friends, told newspersons that Debnath’s wife was not aware of the situation but found his behavior unusual. However, she did not pay much heed. On October 8 evening, Santosh’s friend informed the matter to police and he was found with several cuts in the belly.
“Blue Whale” came to prominence in May 2016 through an article in Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, that linked many unrelated child suicides to membership of group “F57” on the VKontakte social network. A wave of moral panic swept Russia. However the piece was later criticized for attempting to make a causal link where none existed, and none of the suicides was found to be as a result of the group activities.
In India, media reported this year several cases of child suicide, self harm and attempted suicide alleged to be the result of Blue Whale Game. However, no case has been officially confirmed.
In August 2017, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology requested that several internet companies (including Google, Facebook, and Yahoo) remove all links which direct users to the game. Some commentators accused the government of creating a moral panic.
Indian internet watchdog the Centre for Internet and Society has accused the coverage of effectively spreading and advertising a ‘game’ for which there is little evidence. In India suicide was the second most common form of death of children, according to a 2012 report.