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MANGALURU: A 12-year-old boy was found dead about 500 metres from his house near KC Road in the Ullal police station limits on Sunday. The deceased identified as Mohammed Akif, son of Hanif, a lorry driver is suspected to be a victim of video gaming. He left home at around 8.45pm on Saturday.

City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar terming the incident as unfortunate told reporters on Sunday that preliminary investigation revealed that the boy was a victim of video game- PUBG. When the boy did not return home, his family launched a search operation and even informed the police. Another boy, whose age is yet to be ascertained, has been taken into custody for interrogation. The accused and the deceased had met each other at a mobile shop a few months ago.

At around 7am, the body of the class six boy was found at a ground behind a school. The accused had covered his body with plantain leaves and coconut fronds. The boy’s parents were called to identify the body, following which the body was shifted to the district Wenlock Hospital for postmortem.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspected accused and the deceased met each other at around 9pm to play PUBG. The deceased was reportedly winning regularly and the suspected accused felt that he was cheating by taking others help. Hence they decided to play a game sitting face to face and the deceased lost the game. An argument over the loss turned violent and the accused reportedly hit the boy with the stone. When he started bleeding and collapsed, the suspected accused dragged him to a corner and returned to his home, Shashi Kumar said.

The family has confirmed that the deceased used to play PUBG regularly. The area has a lot of CCTV cameras which are being examined to ascertain if there were others at the spot, the police said.