LUCKNOW, Sept. 17 -- A mobile phone has become crucial evidence in the investigation into the alleged suicide of a 14-year-old boy on Monday, police said. The phone in question, which the boy used to play an online game and, eventually, lose Rs 13 lakh, was reset hours before his body was found, they said, adding the device no longer carried any call logs, messages, social media accounts or gaming history. According to the investigators, the money lost was part of the sum acquired by the father after a land transaction made for medical treatment. When he went to the bank to withdraw the funds last week, he was shocked to find that his account balance was zero. "Upon confronting his son about the same, the boy admitted to having lost the money in an online game. Family members, including his tuition teacher, counselled him against such behaviour. Later that evening, he was found hanging in his room. He was rushed to a community health centre, where doctors declared him dead," said Mohanlalganj ACP Rajneesh Verma. Police said the device appeared to have been reset around 9 pm, hours before the body was discovered. "We are trying to establish how the mobile phone was reset: whether it was done by the child, triggered through some software, or manually wiped to destroy evidence," said Dilesh Kumar Singh, the Mohanlalganj SHO. Investigators didn't rule out the possibility of organised gaming gangs being involved. Police sources said certain online platforms used covert payment gateways and could erase user data to prevent detection if there was no activity from the player. "This angle is also under examination," said a senior officer, adding that the mobile phone's forensic recovery will be critical in establishing whether any such external intervention took place. Meanwhile, the phone has been sent to the forensic science laboratory (FSL), and the cyber cell is tracing the money trail to see if the siphoned funds were diverted into individual accounts or converted into digital currency. "The money trail could expose a larger racket exploiting minors through online gaming platforms," the officer added. Meanwhile, the boy's school was closed for a day to mourn his death....