Boy dies while imitating reality stunt show

Lucknow, April 19 (IANS) Nine-year-old Chandan Singh was an avid watcher of MTV's reality show "Roadies" and never missed an episode. But Saturday night's episode was to be his last. The boy hanged himself accidentally while imitating a stunt on the show.

Chandan, a Class 3 student, had watched the episode where two female contestants, Palak and Paloomi, were made to stand on a wooden stool with their hands tied. A rope was also placed around their neck. Another semi-finalist, Noman, was then given three minutes to save one of them.

"He watched the episode on the third floor of our house along with his friends and tried to imitate the stunt after his friends left. After hearing a loud noise, I rushed to the room and found Chandan hanging from the ceiling fan," his uncle Bhagat Singh told media persons.

Inspector Jaganath Saroj of Vikas Nagar police station said: "According to his uncle, Bhagat Singh, with whom he used to live in the Vikas Nagar locality, Chandan never missed any episode of the show."

Chandan was taken to a nearby hospital but was declared dead by the doctors.

"The incident was reported to us Sunday morning and the body has been sent for post-mortem," Saroj added.

Chandan's father, a native of Pithauragarh, is a farmer.

• Television