20-Year-Old Allegedly Murdered By 3 Teen Friends After Dipute Over PUBG Game

A 20-year-old man in India has been allegedly murdered by his three teen friends after a dispute over the online game PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds).

The police have arrested the primary accused, identified as 19-year-old Pranav Koli, from Thane, near the Indian city of Mumbai, and detained his two minor friends for allegedly murdering the victim, identified as Sahil Jadhav, Hindustan Times reported.

Jadhav was reportedly targeted by the suspects Monday. They stabbed him with a sharp knife, injuring his chest, back, head and leg. The victim was immediately transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Although the PUBG game is banned in India, the suspects and the victim reportedly continued to play the game by accessing it through VPN (a virtual private network), and often fought over the same, police said.

"During the investigation, it was found that the deceased and accused had assaulted each other over PUBG games. After the game, the youngsters used to have regular fights and have oral disputes between them," a senior investigating officer said, as reported by Free Press Journal.

The police have also received reports from local people who claimed to have spotted the suspects fighting near a school in the area after consuming liquor and playing online games.

Meanwhile, the police said they are trying to see if the suspects can be charged as adults, as a new amendment in the juvenile justice act in India allows young offenders to be charged as adults in case of serious offenses.

The online game PUBG was banned in India last year along with several other Chinese apps, citing security reasons. The game has been widely criticized for its violent nature and many people often cite it as the possible cause for increasing cases of suicides and murders among teenagers in the country.

Last month, a 14-year-old boy from Pakistan's Punjab province allegedly fatally shot his entire family after getting influenced by the online PUBG game. The unidentified teenager confessed to murdering his four family members including, his 45-year-old mother Nahid Mubarak, and his three siblings aged 22, 17 and 11 under the influence of the game.