Odisha college student found hanging from ceiling fan; online gaming link suspected

A college student was found hanging under suspicious circumstances in Soro area of Balasore district on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Ashish Mallick, son of Sharat Chandra Mallick of Arada Village.

Though the exact reason behind his death has not been ascertained as yet, an online game that he had been playing on his smartphone is suspected to be linked to his death, sources said.

As per reports, after returning from his college in the afternoon on Friday, Ashish had bolted himself inside his room. As he did not come out of the room for long, his mother knocked on the door. But she did not get any response from inside.

When his mother peeped into the room through a window, she was shocked to see Ashish hanging from the ceiling fan. 

With the help of neighbours, she broke open the doors and Ashish was immediately rushed to the Soro hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

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Madhusudan Sahu, maternal uncle of the deceased said, “After coming from the college, Ashish went inside his room. For the last two months, he had always been engaged in online games on his tablet.  He has got training on the game Free Fire. He used to keep ATM cards. Something perhaps happened to him due to the online game yesterday.”
However, it is not clear if Ashish has lost money in the game. 

Meanwhile, police have started an investigation into his death.