Like in Blue Whale, people can be persuaded to do anything: SC

Like the 'Blue Whale' internet game, people can nowadays be persuaded to do anything, the Supreme Court observed today.
'Blue Whale' is a controversial internet game in which a series of tasks, mostly brutal, are given to players for a period of 50 days by the administrators with a final challenge requiring them to commit suicide.
The player is asked to share photos after finishing the different levels of the game. The game is spread via links on social media platforms.
"Like in the 'Blue Whale' game, nowadays you can persuade people to do anything," a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and D Y Chandrachud observed while dealing with a case of conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man, which was annulled by the Kerala High Court dubbing it as an instance of 'love jihad'.

The observation came on a day when a PIL was moved in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to internet companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo to take down the links of 'Blue Whale', a challenge-based suicide game that has been allegedly linked to deaths of several children worldwide.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT had yesterday said in a letter to the internet majors-- Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove the links of the dangerous online game Blue Whale Challenge, which has led to suicides of children in India and other countries.

The apex court's observation came when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Shafin Jahan, the husband and the petitioner, said that the court should talk to the woman as she had wilfully married him.

He said that the court was assuming too much in the case as the woman is a major and she had of her own will decided to marry the man.
"No, we are not assuming anything. Yes, we will certainly talk to her but not at this stage. Before forming any opinion or arriving at a conclusion, we would like to consider the NIA's probe report, inputs from the Kerala Police and talk to the woman," the apex court said.
Another senior counsel Indira Jaising, appearing for the petitioner, said if the court was not willing to call the woman, then liberty should be granted to file an affidavit.

The bench said that everyone wanted a fair probe in the case and it will appoint a retired Supreme Court judge to supervise the NIA investigation as there are some serious remarks made by the High Court that need to be looked into.
The apex court later directed the NIA to probe into the case of conversion and marriage of the Hindu woman to a Muslim man, as the agency claimed it was not an isolated incident but a "pattern" was emerging in Kerala.