The boy, K Girija Prasad, was a class VI student of the Saraswati Sishu Mandir here.

When the incident occurred, the boy's younger brother was home while their parents were away at work.

According to Gopinath Khatua, Girija's father, this wasn't the first time Girija had attempted to emulate Shaktiman. In the earlier instance, his father had rescued him.

And since a last few days, the boy had been constantly asking his parents to get a Shaktiman costume for him, Gopinath said.

"He was very fond of the serial and always talked about the hero to us. He had also mentioned about Shaktiman in the letters written to his friends," his father said.

On Saturday, after Khatua and his wife left for work, Girija and his younger brother watched the serialat 11.30 am, had their lunch and decided to take a nap.

While the younger brother went of to sleep, Girija told him that he is going to the other room to `become' Shaktiman and asked not to be disturbed.When the younger brother woke up after a few hours, he found Girija hanging from the ceiling fan. He then raised an alarm and informed their neighbours. But by the time help arrived it was already too late.

Before he took the fatal step, Girija, a national award winner in tabla, had written a letter to his younger brother saying that he would not see him any more as he was going to Shaktiman and would `vanish' like his idol.

A case has been registered by the Khandagiri police of unnatural death and the body will be sent for post-mortem on Sunday.