A 17-year-old-girl, with a blue whale carved into her arm, was rescued when she tried to kill herself by jumping into the Kaylana Lake on the outskirts of Jodhpur late on Monday night. The girl allegedly wanted to complete the final task of the lethal Blue Whale Challenge game by ending her life.
The girl told the policemen and divers who saved her that her mother would die and her family would be in trouble if she did not complete the game. “The girl repeatedly asked the policemen to let her jump [into water] and requested them not to inform her family members,” Lekhraj Sihag, SHO of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar police station, said.
The police were protecting the identity of the girl and her family. Though the police officers did not disclose the girl's identity, she was stated to be the daughter of a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier and a resident of Mandore area in Jodhpur city.
The teenage girl had left her home on Monday night on the pretext of going to market. When she did not return, her parents called her on her mobile phone, but it was picked up by a stranger. The panicked parents rushed to the police station with a missing complaint and a hunt was launched for her.
The girl was spotted riding her scooter around the Kaylana lake, situated 8 km to the west of Jodhpur on Jaisalmer Road. Mr. Sihag said the police team rushed to the spot and called her to come back, but she ran to the cliff and jumped into the lake.
A group of divers who were near the area rescued the girl from the lake. The police then handed her over to her family. She told the police that she had downloaded the Blue Whale game in her mobile phone a few days ago and was completing the tasks assigned to her till she reached the final stage.
This was the latest in a series of instances being reported from across the country of deaths or suicide attempts linked to the Blue Whale Challenge game. The girl in Jodhpur had apparently completed the tasks of self-harm and was making one cut on her body per day, besides watching horror videos, before acting upon the final task of jumping off a height and taking her life.
