Odisha boy saved before falling prey to Blue Whale game trap

KORAPUT: A young boy of Mathalput village under Damanjodi police limits in Odisha’s Koraput district has reportedly fallen into the trap of the deadly game ‘Blue Whale’. Luckily, he was rescued before he could inflict further harm on himself.

According to reports, Anil Barik, an ITI student, cut his hand after playing several rounds of the deadly game which pushes the individual playing the game to commit suicide.

According to Anil, he found an incoming hyperlink on his smartphone, from an anonymous sender. Out of curiosity, he tapped on it and the application was installed on the device.

As many as 12 options popped up on his screen with a blue whale in the background. When he clicked on one of the options, he was prompted to cut at 11 places on his body. After 10 cuts, he got frightened and withdrew from the game.

While the teenager was still playing the game, his grandmother found him behaving in an abnormal manner and communicated it to other family members. The family members snatched the mobile phone from Anil’s possession and uninstalled the ‘dare game’. When asked, Anil, who was engrossed in the game, expressed that he didn’t feel any pain while he was inflicting cuts on his body. However, he stressed that he won’t play the game anymore, reports added.

Koraput Superintendent of police (SP) Kanwar Vishal Singh said that they are investigating into the matter.

“Some officials on Friday evening visited the boy’s village as part of their investigation. After completion of the investigation process, it will be known, if the boy was playing the Blue Whale Challenge game,” the SP said.

Odisha has reported one alleged Blue Whale game-related suicide case while in another incident, an engineering student, who had completed several phases of the game, was rescued by Cuttack police after the neighbours tweeted to the cops about his strange behaviour.