Cops Probe Possible Blue Whale Link in B’luru Student’s Suicide

Cops are looking for deleted data from the student’s mobile phone as part of the investigation.

Bengaluru cops are probing whether the Blue Whale Challenge led to the suicide of a student in the city. City police has approached cybercrime experts to analyse the mobile phone of 21-year-old Golurguri Sai Sarath.

Sarath, an M.Tech student at International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB), had committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of his hostel building, in Electronic City in southeast Bengaluru on Friday morning.

The suicide took place hours after he returned from a birthday party. Before jumping to his death, Sarath deleted data from his mobile phone. This has raised the suspicion whether his suicide had anything to do with the Blue Whale Challenge.  

Senior police officers said that apart from finding any possible link to the game, forensic experts will also will help determine the motive behind his suicide. “We have sent his phone to the forensic team hoping that they can salvage the deleted data. Only the data can confirm if the game was the reason behind his death,” said MB Boralingaiah, Deputy Commissioner of Police, southeast.

Investigators said, so far ragging, financial and family disputes are the other angles that have been probed. However, there has been no breakthroughs. As several suspected cases of the Blue Whale Challenge are being reported and because the victim had deleted all the data from his phone, cops are now focusing on this theory.

A report in The Hindu said, Child Helpline in Bengaluru has seen a tremendous increase in the number of calls over the past month. It said that although these calls were not directly related to the recently-discovered Blue Whale Challenge, most of the parents were concerned about their children's mobile and internet addiction.

According to reports, the Karnataka government is also mulling writing to the Centre to request a ban on the game. The Maharashtra and Kerala governments have already written to the Centre in this regard.

Tanveer Sait, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, was quoted as saying that a state government cannot take measures to stop the game on its own. "But, I have asked my department officials to draft a request letter to HRD as well as the IT Ministry in this regard. Even I am reading reports of kids and teenagers ending their lives after getting addicted to the game," the Minister said.

(With inputs from The News Minute)

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