Jodhpur, Sep 05, 2017: A 17-year-old who had carved a "Blue Whale" into her arm was rescued after she jumped off a cliff into a lake in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur around midnight yesterday.
The girl, spotted circling around the lake on her scooter for some time, was saved by divers and policemen and handed over to her parents.
The teen, the daughter of a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier, had left home on Monday night claiming she was going to the market.
When she did not return, her parents called her on her mobile phone. They realized she had left it lying somewhere when it was picked up by a stranger.
The family panicked and started looking for the missing girl, who, in the meantime, had been spotted riding her scooter around the lake.
The police, alerted by some people, reached the spot just as the girl was jumping off a hilltop. They called her, but she ran and plunged into the waters as they watched.
Police officer Lekhraj Sihag said he and a diver, Om Prakash, pulled the girl out of the lake. When they questioned her, she reportedly said she had to "finish a task". The familiar "blue whale" shape carved into her arm with a knife also offered a big clue.
"We got information at around 11 pm last night that a girl was driving around Kalyana lake...we reached the spot and called out to her but she ran up towards the hillocks surrounding the lake, then she jumped into the lake and we pulled her out in time," Mr Sihag told NDTV.
Several states are struggling with cases suspected to be linked to the deadly online challenge that originated in Russia; some 100 deaths across the world have been linked to it.
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.
Courtesy: NDTV