Alarmed by the recent reports of two persons allegedly committing suicide in northern West Bengal after receiving invitations to join online killer game ‘Momo Challenge’, the state administration has started taking precautionary steps to combat the threat.
Besides sending directives to police stations in the districts, the administration has also asked educational institutes to keep a tab on the behavioral pattern of students, an official told PTI. “It (Momo challenge) is growing every day. After the Blue Whale challenge, now we are facing this killer Momo Game Challenge. Links to this ‘game’ is getting circulated mostly through WhatsApp. We have alerted officials in the district to keep a tab on this matter,” he said.
The killer ‘game’ features a creepy image of a girl with a distorted face and eyes bulging out called the “Mother Bird by Link Factory”. It is alleged that the Momo Challenge has claimed lives of two persons at Kurseong in Darjeeling district – Manish Sarki (18) on August 20 and Aditi Goyal (26) the next day. Police suspect that both of them were into the online killer game which led them to take the ultimate step. “It is a growing menace and we are getting reports of an increasing number of people, mostly youths, getting an invitation on their WhatsApp from unidentified numbers to play the ‘game’,” the official said.
