MOMO Challenge: Youth Cuts Hand In Cuttack, Hospitalised

Cuttack: A youth allegedly cut his own hand on Monday at Jhakuta village of 42 Mauza in Cuttack district and his family suspects that he took the step while playing the MOMO Challenge game.

The youth, identified as Sunil Das, was immediately rush to the the Plastic Surgery department of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. His condition is stated to be stable now.

According to the sources, the 22-year-old cut his hand with a sickle on Monday afternoon.

Suspecting it to the outcome of playing the MOMO challenge game, his family members said that he looked disturbed for the past few days.

On September 5 a youth was found hanging from the ceiling of an under-construction club house at Umara Gaon village of Mahanga in the district. The deceased has been identified as Umakant Behera. On receiving information about Behera’s death, his family members rushed to the spot and later found the deadly MOMO Application downloaded on his mobile phone.

In the first week of September, Twin City Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty had informed that the Commissionerate Police has decided to launch a drive called ‘Know Your Police’ from this week to make school students aware of the dangers of playing the MOMO Challenge game.

In the first phase, students were invited to different police stations to spend 45 minutes to an hour to know about the threats associated with the online game.

On September, the Odisha Crime Branch had issued a list of advisory for the parents, teachers as well as media asking them to be aware of this threat and save the children from the same by taking certain precautionary measures.

MOMO Challenge is being circulated by some mischievous and criminal-minded people on social media. It instigates people, especially children to commit suicide as the final task. As some innocent people around the world have fallen prey to this malicious game, there is a need for the parents and teachers to be aware of this threat and save the children from it, the advisory stated.

An unknown number having the profile of a girl’s distorted face with protruding eyes and a wide mouth appears with a WhatsApp invitation from an unknown number. The perpetrators of this horrific crime monitor the status and profiles of people on social networking websites to target people with suicidal tendencies.