The boy's father told police that he suspected his
17-year-old son had taken up the Blue Whale Challenge after noticing cut-wounds
on his son's hand. Cops, however, are of the view that the teenager was cooking
up a story to impress his peers.
The alertness of the family members and the police saved the
life of a 17-year-old in West Bengal's West Midnapore district who might have
been under the grip of the lethal Blue Whale Challenge.
The teenager in question -- Raunak Singha -- is a resident
of Garbera.
Singha had begun taking up tasks as part of the Blue Whale
Challenge under the pretext of special studies with Facebook friends. Since he
was studious, no one doubted his activities.
Raunak, soon, began behaving strangely and had cuts on his
arm. He carved "F-57" -- a code of sorts that curators demand those
who take up the challenge to have -- on his arm.
An alarm was raised after Raunak asked one of his friends
from school, "How does a whale sound?" The schoolmate alerted
Raunak's parents immediately and the parents sought help from the police.
Apparently, the 'F' on Raunak's arm referred to football and
the number (57) referred to what he initially claimed to get after completing
some of the inititial tasks of the fatal online challenge.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT THE BLUE WHALE CHALLENGE
"All of a sudden from nowhere, I got a link. When I
logged into the link, I received a call from the creator. He gave me several
instructions. He made me hate my society and brainwashed me. And then I started
obeying the rules one after another. I was, at first, asked to engrave a code,
F 57, take a picture of that and upload it on the site. So I took the picture
and sent it to them. After which, they replied that if they won't like it, I'll
have to do it again. The second day, they sent me horror movies at 4 30 AM and
I was asked to watch those. After completing the second task, I was asked to
stay quiet. They instructed me to make sounds like a whale for the third task.
I was not allowed to talk about this to anybody, not to my parents or my
friends. I spoke to a friend about making a whale's sound and he shared this
with everybody," said Raunak Singha.
DECODING HIS QUOTES
1. Raunak mentioned
receiving a link to the Blue Whale Challenge and about receiving a call from
the "creator".
The two parties in the Blue Whale Challenge -- the one
accepting the challenge and the one assigning tasks, referred to as curators,
-- in most cases find each other on social media platforms using certain
hashtags and then move on to having personal conversations via Facebook,
Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Skype, Instagram etc..
The existence of a particular "link" to a website
has to be verified. The curators "talk" to those accepting the
challenge only towards the later stages, but Raunak said he got a call. The
risk of people who impersonate curators is high. Building a website dedicated
to this is not a Herculian task either.
2. Curator
brainwashing the taker of the challenge and tasks
The curators engage in long conversations with the takers of
the challenge, understand them and brainwash them. They feed negativity into
the impressionable minds of teenagers and employ different tools to achieve
this. Tools known till now include isolating them, disrupting their sleep-cycle
(hence the tasks at 4 30 AM), making them overcome the fear of pain (hurting
themselves). From what Raunak said, these fit.
RAUNAK'S FATHER'S
ACCOUNT
The teenager's father Sapan Kumar Singha said, "We came
to know that our boy is "playing" on Wednesday when he skipped his
tuition and informed his friend about the same via a text message. He warned
them not to tell anybody. His friend told him they [friends] would protect him
[Raunak] in any other matter but not this. They informed a teacher who then
gave us a call to inform that our boy has taken up the Blue Whale Challenge. He
had been at it for four to five days. He had engraved a code [F 57] with a
blade on his left hand. I was not here, my wife gave me a call and informed me
about this."
An investigation has been started in this regard.
POLICE'S VERSION
Speaking exclusively to India Today, Superintendent of
Police of West Midnapore district, Bharati Ghosh, said, "Raunak has
confessed that he had never downloaded the link to the Blue Whale
"game". He was concocting a story to grab the attention of his
Facebook friends and become a hero in the society. Initially, the logo [code]
on his hand was made using sauce by one of his female friends from another
district on Facebook which he copied on his hand by using a blade to cut into
the skin. We have taken his statement in written and have videographed it
too."
The suspicion of being another victim of the Blue Whale
challenge created panic and the police are gearing up to take serious actions
in this regard.
Raunak's Facebook account has been identified by the police
and is being closely monitored. He has 750 friends on the social networking
site. The girl, who is said to have discussed stories about the
Blue Whale Challenge,
is on his Facebook friend list.
This is yet another case that has triggered panic in the
system on the plausible reflection of the penetration of the life-claiming game
that Blue Whale is.
