Blue Whale Challenge triggers panic in Assam as more cases turn up

A Google Trends report suggesting that Guwahati is ranked fourth among cities in the world for searches and downloads of the game of progressively dangerous dares.

The Blue Whale Challenge (File Photo)

GUWAHATI: Assam is in the grip of a Blue Whale Challenge panic with a Google Trends report suggesting that Guwahati is ranked fourth among cities in the world for searches and downloads of the game of progressively dangerous dares.

The report of the suicide of Bulu Dey Bori, a 19-year-old MBA Assamese student of Pondicherry University who hanged himself from a tree near his dormitory in the wee hours of Friday, has sent shockwaves through the state.

Three Blue Whale cases were reported from Assam on Friday. A Class VII student in Raha was admitted to the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for psychiatric treatment. His parents were alarmed when they noticed an image of a whale carved on his forearm arm. He is the third such student to be admitted to GMCH.

Another Class VII student of a madrasa in Barama was reported to his parents when his teachers learnt of his penchant for the game. The student was in the early stages of the 50-step challenge.

In a similar case, teachers of a school at Teok in Jorhat district handed over a student to his parents on learning that he had taken up the blue whale challenge. When the police launched an investigation, the student went underground. He had reached level 45 of the challenge, reports said.

The first Blue Whale case in the state was reported when a class X student of Guwahati was admitted to GMCH. His parents saw him depressed and were shocked to find an image of a whale carved on his arm. He is now recuperating.

This spurt of scary stories has forced the police here to issue an advisory to parents and teachers. Schools have taken up awareness programmes while parental anxieties are soaring. In most cases, they have no inkling of the stress their children are under once they come under the Blue Whale influence.

Sashi Kanta Bori’s mother Bulu Dey Bori, mother of Sashi Kanta Bori, the 19-year-old MBA student of Pondicherry University who hanged himself from a tree near his dormitory in the wee hours of Friday, said the teenager did seem disturbed when she talked to him on the telephone a few days ago. “I don’t know what he was exactly suffering from. But surely something was affecting him,” she told reporters in Assam.

“He would call me up late at night and weep. He didn’t tell me what was troubling him. He was not a lovelorn boy nor did he have any problem with money,” she said.

A message on the teenager’s Facebook page, posted at 2:21 am on August 29, read: “Maybe I wasn't made for anyone”.