A Jalandhar bike mechanic lost ₹50,000 to his 15-year-old son’s addiction to PUBG.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, popularly known as PUBG, is an online multiplayer battle royale game, which in the past few months has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

In the recent case, a teen withdrew money from his father’s bank account to purchase a PUBG game controller as well as weapons for the online game, the Jalandhar police said on Saturday.

The matter came to light after the father filed a police complaint on January 20, citing that around ₹50,000 had been withdrawn from his bank account. He had not even received a one-time password (OTP) or any transaction alert.

As the cyber cell launched an inquiry, the truth came out.

“We found that money from the complainant’s account had been transferred to a Paytm account and used to purchase PUBG items through various transactions,” said cyber cell in-charge Monica Arora.

With the help of Paytm officials, the contact number and address of the buyer was found.

“When we got the address, the matter became clear. The address was that of the complainant,” said Arora.

The complainant’s son — who studies in Class 10 — confessed that he stole and spent ₹50, 000 on the game after his father refused to give him the money.

The boy used to transfer the money into his friends Paytm account using his father’s mobile phone at night.

“He used to delete all transaction messages from the mobile phone to ensure his father didn’t come to know about it,” said Arora.

After coming to know about his son’s involvement, the man took back his complaint. Police did not share the identify of the complaint and his son.

Addictive game

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, popularly known as PUBG, is an online multiplayer battle royale game, wherein players have to survive till the clock runs out

The addictive free-to-play game has received criticism for allegedly promoting violence and even distracting kids from studies.

Recently, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights tagged the game as harmful, having an adverse impact on a child’s brain.

The Rajkot police have announced to ban the game. The Gujarat government had written to the Centre in January seeking a ban

First Published: Mar 09, 2019 21:41 IST