Odisha Police to remove 'Blue Whale' game from social media

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police has asked all district police authorities to remove from social media the 'Blue Whale Challange', an online game which allegedly claimed lives of several children in the country.

"You are requested to take steps to ensure that such links of the deadly game in its own name or any similar game is immediately removed from the social media platform," Odisha DGP K B Singh said in an official note to senior officers.

In his directive, Singh told all SPs in the state to keep a watch on various social media platforms and ensure that the game was not available to the users.

Singh said this order should be carried out with immediate effect taking into account the urgency of the issue.

"It is understood that an administrator of the game uses social media platforms to invite/initiate children to play this game, which may eventually led to the extreme step for self inflicting injuries including suicide," the DGP said.

Recently, a Class X girl in Sambalpur was found hanging from a fan in her room. The girl died at the hospital later.

Though the local police was probing the causes of the girl's death, her parents linked the death to 'Blue Whale Challenge'. Sambalpur SP Sanjeev Arora has, however, already ruled out the Blue Whale game angle in the incident.