Suspected Bengal victim of Blue Whale Challenge stayed aloof: Friends, family

A computer games buff, Dey never told his friends about the Blue Whale dare, even though he used to share with them his other internet games.

Class 10 student Ankan Dey in West Bengal, who killed himself on Saturday after apparently taking the Blue Whale game Challenge, had been quiet and aloof over few weeks, his friends and family said on Sunday.

Ankan Dey’s family members didn’t see him taking the Blue Whale dare, which provokes players to do daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before taking the ‘winning’ step of killing themselves, but they saw him playing ‘some’ game on the computer before going to the washroom and locking the door. (Representational Photo)

A computer games buff, Dey never told his friends about the Blue Whale dare, even though he used to share with them his other internet activities.

Dey choked himself to death by covering his head with a plastic bag tied tightly around his neck with a nylon cord, in the bathroom of his home in Anandpur town of West Midnapore district.

Dey’s family members didn’t see him taking the dare, which provokes players to do daring, self-destructive tasks for 50 days before taking the “winning” step of killing themselves, but they saw him playing “some” game on the computer before going to the washroom and locking the door.

“He was (an) introvert but used to interact with friends, especially over progresses (he) made on various video games. Of late, however, he was keeping distance from his friends,” Manoranjan, Dey’s uncle, said.

Sudarshan Das, Dey’s classmate, told HT, “He liked action games and he had told me earlier that he had completed the two levels of IGI (another game). But in the recent times we noticed some changes in his behaviour and he did not mix up with me and others. He never told us anything about the Blue Whale game.”

Another classmate, Satadip Dutta, said, “He had told me earlier that he played Sunny Suspense. He also loved to play cricket but had been irregular in the playing field recently. He was no longer talking to us the way he used to.”

West Midnapore district superintendent of police Bharati Ghosh, however, said they are “probing all aspects”

The police are investigating the computer and may go for forensic analysis to find out whether he was, indeed, playing the fatal game.