JAJPUR:Police on Monday ruled out the deadly Blue Whale game angle in the death of a cousin of Odia sprinter Dutee Chand. The police clarification came after Dutee in a post on social media claimed that her cousin Utkal Keshari Guin (24), who was killed in a road accident recently, died pursuing challenges of the online game.
Refuting Dutee’s claim, Kuakhia IIC Ashis Kumar Sahu said the death of Utkal was due to road accident and is not at all related to the online game.Utkal was sitting in the front seat of the car owned by Dutee and one Dhaneswar Das was behind the wheel when the mishap took place near Biju Nagar on National Highway 16. While Utkal died on the spot, Dhaneswar sustained injuries in the accident. “How can Utkal carry out the command of the game’s admin when he was not behind the wheel?” the IIC questioned.
In her post on social media, Dutee said Blue Whale challenge took the life of her cousin. She said, “Suspecting his activities and the circumstances surrounding the accident, I checked all his posts on Facebook from where I got to know that he had been playing Blue Whale.”
However, she sought a thorough probe into the incident. “A proper inquiry into the incident would make everything clear,” the sprinter added.As per reports, several guests, a few of them from Bhubaneswar, had come to attend a function in Dutee’s house at her native village in Gopalpur within Kuakhia police limits on September 5 night.
On the wee hours of next morning, Dutee’s cousin Utkal took two women guests to Kuakhia in the sprinter’s car to board a Bhubaneswar-bound bus. Dhaneswar of the same village was driving the car. After seeing off the guests at Mulapal, Utkal and Dhaneswar were returning when the car hit a stationary truck from behind at around 5.30 am.
Parents’ meet in Rourkela
Rourkela: An awareness meeting on Blue Whale challenge was organised by Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) here to educate parents and teachers on hazards of the online game. DIG of Police (Western Range) Kavita Jalan interacted with the parents and teachers over the menace and made a detail presentation on threats of the game. She advised parents to be vigilant about children accessing unknown internet sites and counsel their children properly. IIC of five police stations, parents, principals and teachers of Ispat English Medium School, Ispat Vidya Mandir, Delhi Public School, St. Paul's School, Desouza School and Chinmaya Vidyalaya participated. RSP GM (Town Administration) NK Samantray, DGM (Town Services) PC Das and Manager (Education) SK Mishra were present.