India topped the world in Blue Whale Challenge searches over the past one year

In the most recent alleged Blue Whale Challenge death, Vignesh, a 19-year-old college student from Madurai district committed suicide on Wednesday by hanging himself inside his house with authorities linking it to the Blue Whale Challenge as an image of a whale had been carved onto his left arm.

Also Read:Blue Whale Challenge: 13-year-old commits suicide in UP, another saved in Bengal,

A 14-year-old boy from Andheri in Mumbai was the first reported death tied to the Blue Whale suicide game in India.

Data collated from the past one month also shows the top five cities in the global search ranking for Blue Whale Challenge were Indian. Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Trivandrum, Kochi and Thane topped the list.

The development comes in the background of the arrest of 17-year-old mastermind of Blue Whale Challenge caught in Russia.

The Russian girl was reportedly heading multiple groups that were running the suicide game and was threatening to kill her victims or their family members if they did not follow her instructions.

The Blue Whale Challenge targets those who are depressed and turns suicide into a thrilling game. After signing up, the ‘players’ are set tasks for 50 days, that include self-harm, watching horror movies alone, and carving a whale on the arm.

Their final task on the 50^th day is to kill themselves.

According to Russian police, the arrested 17-year-old girl initially played the game but did not complete it by taking her own life.

The twisted challenge has till now been linked to more than 130 suicides around the world. The term ‘Blue Whale’ apparently has origin in the phenomenon of beached whales which is linked with suicide.

Philipp Budeikin, a Russian psychology student is behind bars and he confessed to inventing the challenge. He was sentenced by a Siberian court to three years in jail for inciting teens all over the world to kill themselves.

Back in July, the Russian police arrested a 26-year-old man accused of being the brain behind the suicide cult resembling the Blue Whale Challenge.

Teenagers in Kerala, Pune, Indore and Dehradun also either killed themselves or were saved before they had jumped off buildings on the instruction from the game administrators.

The game’s popularity has prompted governments around the world to direct internet giants Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove its links.

Also Read: Will act against social media firms on Blue Whale game: Ravi Shankar Prasad

An engineering college student from Kolkata and two other teenage girls in Bengal were counselled and taken out of the challenge by the invention of police and other authorities.

Cyber experts and psychologists advise parents to strictly monitor teenagers playing lethal online games.