At 5 am on Wednesday, winner of Kannada Bigg Boss 4, Pratham, went live on Facebook, claiming that it was his last live video. He swallowed sleeping pills and added that he was mentally disturbed.
Pratham said, “Over the last few days, I've been mentally disturbed by the things my friends have been saying to me. I've been hurt and disappointed by them. I did not know Loki would betray me. I am grateful to all Kannadigas who are responsible for making me win Bigg Boss 4. These are my last words."
According to Pratham’s friend, Srinivas, Loki and Pratham had had a fall-out over the last week. Loki was Pratham's close friend and had promoted the latter a lot on social media when he was a contestant on the Bigg Boss 4 show.
Pratham’s neighbour, Shivaprakash, said that he'd seen four of Pratham’s friends carrying him down the stairs and taking him to the hospital in a car. Shivakumar and his wife claim that Pratham was unconscious at the time.
“Pratham had accused Loki of misusing his affiliation to him and tarnishing his image. Upset by Pratham’s accusation, Loki had put up a Facebook live on Monday, saying that Pratham had changed a lot as he became popular after winning Bigg Boss. Pratham had allegedly assaulted Loki after watching this video and Loki had taken down the post before filing a complaint with the Basaveshwara Nagar Police,” Srinivas said.
Soon after Pratham won Bigg Boss, he had been offered the lead role in the Kannada film Devarantha Manushya. His friend Kirti said that was no reason for Pratham to end his life but speculated that the fame had become too difficult for him to handle.
“When Pratham entered Bigg Boss, no one knew who he was. He became extremely famous in 114 days and he did not know how to handle it as everything happened all of a sudden. He became disturbed by the negative comments that started circulating after his fight with Loki. He could not handle that as he had gained popularity on Facebook and was being trolled by the same people who had become his fans," he said.
Following the suicide attempt, Pratham’s friends took him to the Fortis Hospital in Nagarabhavi and he has been declared out of danger.
The Annapoorneshwari Nagar police, who visited the hospital where Pratham has been admitted, said that he had taken two sleeping pills.
“Pratham had made a call to his friend Lokesh alias Loki an hour before he went live on Facebook. We have a recording of that call, in which Pratham abuses Loki and says ‘you wait for an hour and then watch what will happen’ in a threatening tone. He had also assaulted Loki the previous night. Loki has alleged that Pratham took only two pills and went live on Facebook to regain his popularity and also to get back at Loki,” said station inspector Vasanth Kumar.
Inspector Kumar added that if it was revealed that Pratham was staging the suicide to implicate Loki, the police would register a complaint against him under section 309 of the IPC (attempt to commit suicide).
“We are questioning the doctors and we will take Pratham’s statement after he wakes up,” he said.
Pratham's suicide attempt on Facebook live comes a day after 24-year-old student Arjun Bhardwaj ended his life by jumping off the 19th floor of a Mumbai hotel. Arjun, too, had live-streamed his suicide.