13-Year-Old Boy Ends Life After Losing Money In Online Game

A 13-year-old boy hanged himself to death reportedly after his mother berated him for wasting money in an online game.

On Friday, July 30, the teen, who hails from the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, India, withdrew Rs 40,000 ($ 540 approx.) from his mother’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) account and misspend it in the online game, 'Free Fire'.

The boy’s mother, a nurse working with the state health department, who was at work, received an alert on her cellphone about the debited amount. The mother then called the boy and upbraided him for spending the money.

"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," an investigating officer said.

The door was broken open and the boy was found hanging from the ceiling fan using a scarf, police added.

The boy was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

"My son started playing online games due to online classes. I didn’t know that his time pass will turn fatal," the boy's father said, local media reported.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Shashank Jain recovered a suicide note, from the scene, wherein the boy "who studied in a private school, sought an apology from his mother and said that he is committing suicide due to depression".

The police are investigating the death to identify whether the boy spent the money himself or if someone had threatened him to do so.

This is an ongoing investigation and no further details were revealed at the time of this writing.

In a similar incident, a 12-year-old boy killed himself after his father took away his cell phone due to his addiction to the 'Free Fire' game. The incident occurred in January this year at the Dhana town of Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh, India.

'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.