Mumbai: Minutes before Manpreet Singh (14) committed suicide on Saturday, as part of his alleged participation in the online ‘Blue Whale’ game, he had sent a Whatsapp message to one of his friends, saying that he was going to his seven –storeyed building’s terrace to jump off. Not realising that Manpreet was serious, the friend had sent a smiley emoticon. Investigators said the friend came to know about Manpreet’s suicide a day later via friends and has been blaming himself for not alerting his parents about it.
The Meghwadi police which has registered an accidental death report has found indications that Manpreet had planned his suicide at least three days before he jumped off the building. According to the police, Manpreet had informed his friends on a Whatsapp group three days before the incident that he won’t come to school coming Monday.
The Meghwadi police is still struggling to zero in on the source of the internet game. The cyber police is examining Manpreet’s cyber gadgets, mobile, laptop and desktop.
Manpreet, who was well connected to his friends via the Whatsapp group, had shared his plans of participating in the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’. His friend took that message as a joke, but was shocked to hear on Sunday that he was indeed serious. He even told his friends he would not come to school anymore.
Navinchandra Reddy, deputy commissioner of police, zone 10, said, “We have assigned three teams wherein one is interrogating the deceased’s friends, one is recording the statements of the eye-witnesses who saw Manpreet standing on the terrace minutes before he jumped off, while the third team is checking his gadgets.”
A cyber police officer said that a few sites were banned on the Internet, but people find ways to access them. People use different IP address of a foreign country. These sites are accessed by ‘bouncing’ the Internet Protocol (IP) address or by using the Virtual Private Network (VPN), which creates a secure, encrypted connection.
