පරිශීලක:Sithum Pabodha Rox

An engineering student, who was hooked to the dreaded Blue Whale game, was rescued by the police in Cuttack yesterday and handed over to his parents after counselling.

The victim's friend had sent an SMS to the police saying the third-year student was in a depressed state for the past several days.

City DCP Akhileshwar Singh said the Markat Nagar police received a forwarded message that was initially sent by the neighbour of the student, who was staying in a mess located at the residential colony of Abhinav Bidanasi.

The message appealed to the police to intervene and rescue the student, who was perhaps a victim of the online suicidal game, he said.

"A team of the local police intercepted the engineering student in the mess in which he was staying at Satellite city of Abhinav Bidanasi and his parents in Keonjhar district were informed about it", the DCP said adding the student had perhaps reached the tenth level of the online game.

The DCP further appealed that if anyone tried the game out of curiosity and is subsequently threatened by the administrator to perform certain unrealistic tasks, he should immediately seek the help of the police.

The game draws in people, mostly children and teenagers, through online chat rooms. The administrator sniffs out vulnerable candidates and switches to a private chat mode where the player has to take up 50 macabre dares. These include cutting and isolating oneself, listening to disturbing songs, spending time in graveyards, watching horror movies and finally, jumping off a building. For the last dare, the player is given a choice - kill yourself or watch someone close die.