Scolded by Stepmother For Spending Rs 40,000 in ‘Free Fire’ Game, Class 6 Student Kills Self in MP’s Chhatarpur

New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a 13-year-old boy in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh hanged himself to death allegedly after losing Rs 40,000 in an online game. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Shashank Jain asserted that a suicide note has been recovered wherein the boy, a class VI student had sought an apology from his mother and said that he is committing suicide due to depression. Furthermore, it mentioned that he had withdrawn Rs 40,000 from her UPI account and wasted the money on the ‘Free Fire’ game.

Officials probing the incident said that the minor took the extreme step when his mother, a nurse working with the state health department, had gone to the district hospital and his father, a pathology lab owner was also not at home. “After getting an alert on her phone about the financial transaction from her account, the boy’s mother had called and scolded him for it. The boy then locked himself inside a room. After some time, his elder sister found that he was not opening the door and informed her parents about it”, they said.

Later, when the door of the room was broken open, the boy was found hanging from the ceiling fan using a scarf, police added. The officials are probing if the boy himself was spending money on the battle game or if someone else was threatening him.

Earlier this year, a similar incident was reported in Dhana town of Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh, in which a 12-year-old boy committed suicide after his father took away his mobile phone due to his addiction to ‘Free Fire’ game.

‘Free Fire’ is a battle royale game, developed by 111 Dots Studio and published by Garena for Android and iOS. It became the most downloaded mobile game globally in 2019. The game received the award for the “Best Popular Vote Game” by the Google Play Store in 2019.

source https://www.india.com/news/india/scolded-by-stepmother-for-spending-rs-40000-in-free-fire-game-class-6-student-kills-self-in-mps-chhatarpur-4854790/