Mumbai: The parents of the 14-year-old Manpreet Singh, who jumped off the terrace of his residence on Saturday after his alleged participation in the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’, returned from their hometown late on Tuesday. They had gone to perform Manpreet’s last rites. The police has recorded their statements today wherein they have claimed to not have seen any signs of depression in their son and were not aware of his alleged participation in the game.
Minutes before his suicide, he had added a photo with a caption — “Soon, the only thing you would be left with is a picture of me.” The photograph shows Manpreet sitting on the edge of a terrace parapet with his legs dangling by the building.
According to police sources, the link to the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ is a strong speculation, which is connecting the dots in the probe of Manpreet’s suicide. While his parents have said in their statement that they knew nothing about his activities on the Internet, they would log into his social networking websites to check as to how and where did he get an access to the ‘Blue Whale’ game.
Navinchandra Reddy, deputy commissioner of police zone 10 said, “The investigation is still underway, but the probe till now points out towards the fact that Manpreet was indeed a part of the online game and the class 9 student is probably the first victim of the game in India that has so far allegedly killed many in Russia and Europe. The ‘Blue Whale Game’ made its debut in Russia in 2013. Its creator was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for influencing people to commit suicide.
