Five days after a 19-year-old committed suicide at his residence at Mottamalai in Madurai, the Madras High Court on Monday directed the Tamil Nadu police to take strict action against those who share the Blue Whale Challenge game.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court comprising of KK Sasidharan and GR Swaminathan took up the matter suo moto case observing that there was a lack of clear guidance for people. Vignesh was found hanging at his residence last Wednesday. Police suspect that he had played the Blue Whale Challenge after finding an image of a blue whale on his left forearm.
The court has also asked the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to respond by September 8 on removing links related to the game on social media and also requested them to conduct counselling for school students. The state’s CB-CID and SB-CID informed the court that all the links from social networking sites in the state have been blocked and no one will be able to download it.
The court has also sought advice from IIT Madras on how to remove links regarding the game.
The Blue Whale Challenge involves 50 tasks with the final one pushing the player to commit suicide by jumping off a building. In Vignesh’s case, he had also left a note with the blue whale drawn on it, with the warning that the game was dangerous and a trap.
In investigations that followed this death, police found a WhatsApp group on Vignesh’s phone comprising of 75 members.
Meanwhile, the suicide of a 23-year-old student on Thursday in Puducherry University has also raised suspicions of being influenced by the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’, after his friends alleged that he was playing it.