A 16-year-old boy ran away from home in Mumbai of the Indian state of Maharashtra after his parents reprimanded him for allegedly spending 10 lakh rupees through online transactions for playing PUBG, local police said on Friday.
The police subsequently traced the runaway teen to Mahakali Caves area in Andheri (east) on Thursday afternoon and sent him back to his parents at the western suburb of Jogeshwari, an official told NDTV.
The incident came to light on Wednesday evening, after the boy's father approached the MIDC police station with a missing person's complaint, and since the boy was a minor, the police registered a case of kidnapping and a search was launched, the official said.
During the probe, the boy's parents informed the police that the teenager had been addicted to PUBG since last month, and while playing on the mobile phone, he spent 10 lakh from his mother's bank account to get an ID and virtual currency to play the game, he said.
When the parents found out about the online transaction, they scolded the boy, following which he wrote a letter and left the home, the official said.
PUBG mobile was banned by the Indian government in September last year, citing that the game was a threat to the “sovereignty, integrity, defence, and security of the country”. Ever since, there has been several attempts by Krafton to bring the battle royale game back in the country.
This means that Krafton developers did not take any formal permission to launch the game in India.
In Bangladesh, the authorities concerned have taken an initiative to ban “harmful” online games such as PUBG and Free Fire in the country following a High Court directive.
