The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked a senior official of the Union government to explain why online video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, popularly known as PUBG, was still available in India, ANI reported on Tuesday.

The Union government had banned 118 Chinese applications, including PUBG Mobile and its lightweight version PUBG Lite, on September 2, 2020. The government had said that the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.

Advertisement

On October 30, 2020, PUBG had said that its mobile version would no longer be accessible to users in India.

In his letter, Priyank Kanoongo, the chief of the child rights body, expressed concern about an incident in which a 16-year-old boy in Lucknow shot his mother dead after she did not allow him to play the game.

He asked Ajay Prakash Sawhney, a secretary in the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, why the game was available despite having been legally blocked in the country.

Advertisement

“It is requested that the commission may be informed regarding action taken in such incidents and be provided with a list of such games which are being used by minors, along with their regulating bodies and regulating mechanism, within 10 days of receipt of this letter,” Kanoongo said.

The 16-year-old boy had shot his mother in the head with his father’s licensed revolver on June 4, according to the police. The woman died shortly afterwards and the boy hid her body in their home for two days, the police had said. He had allegedly used a room freshener to cover up the foul smell of the decomposing body.

The boy’s nine-year-old sister was in the house at the time of the killing. He had allegedly threatened to kill her sister as well if she told anyone about the shooting.

The boy’s grandmother had lodged a police complaint against him, according to the Hindustan Times. He was booked for murder and was sent to an observation home on June 10.