A police team visited the home of a Kerala team this morning in search of evidence to determine if he killed himself because of the online Blue Whale game which challenges its players to commit suicide. Manoj C Manu, 16, hung himself at his house in Vilapilasala near the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram on July 26. His mother told a Malayalam TV channel that her son had downloaded the game in November. 

"He said in the last stage of the game, one should either commit suicide or murder someone. I got scared after hearing it and asked my son not to play the game," she said.

She claimed that as a result of engaging with Blue Whale Challenge, Manoj had once hurt himself using a compass and jumped into a river though he did not know how to swim. He was later rescued.

"Before he took the extreme step (of hanging), my son had deleted the game from his mobile phone, the woman added.

"There is no confirmatory evidence that the boy played this game at all or the death is related to the Blue Whale App. But the boy's mother has made these allegations and we are looking into it," a senior police officer Manoj Abraham told NDTV.  

Earlier this month, Kerala Chief Minister Pinari Vijayan wrote to the centre demanding a ban on Blue Whale, which originated in Russia and presents players with a list of formidable tasks to be completed in 50 days; the final assignment is suicide.

Teen deaths in different countries including China and Brazil have been linked to the game.  At the end of July, a schoolboy in Mumbai died after jumping off a building; the case was seen as the first Indian death linked to Blue Whale Challenge, though the local police has said there is no evidence yet of this premise.  Last week, two teen boys in Indore and Solapur were stopped from killing themselves after having completed most of the other challenges listed by the game.

The central government has asked major online players including Google, Facebook, WhatsApp to ensure they remove links that lead to or promote the game.

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