The viral ‘Momo Challenge’ has allegedly claimed the life of an engineering student Chetan Kumar in Chennai.
Kumar, a student of a private college in Bhubaneswar, had left his hostel on 20 August for the Tamil Nadu capital.
The third year computer science student at a private engineering college at Bhubaneswar allegedly killed himself by jumping from the sixth floor of a hospital in Chennai.
Chetan’s father S Srinivas Rao works in the Indian Railways in Rourkela.
An inconsolable Rao said, “Chetan was a very quiet and polite boy. He always stayed away from any kind of vices and was also very friendly to all. It is really difficult to imagine that he, of all the persons, could take such a step.”
Speaking to media, Kumar’s maternal uncle B Harinath Rao said, “He left on 20 August and we never received any information from the college. Earlier, whenever he left hostel his parents received the information but on that day there was no information from the college.”
According to Harinath, Chennai police informed the parents of the victim after obtaining the details from Kumar’s mobile phone. The phone was connected to a laptop and it was found that he was playing the last stage of ‘Momo Challenge’.
A distraught Harinath said that such games need to be banned.
It is still unclear why Kumar left for Chennai.