Tamil Nadu girl suicide: Police have taken the phone used to record the video for analysis
Chennai:
In the suicide case of a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Tamil Nadu, a new video has emerged in which she can be heard saying that she “took poison” fearing that she would leave scars. In an earlier video, the girl had said that she had consumed poison and accused her hostel warden of misbehaving and trying to convert her to Christianity.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had ordered a magistrate to record the statement of his parents. It also asked the person filming the student’s statement to give a phone call to the police for forensic analysis. The phone is now with the police.
The court asked the police not to harass the person recording the statement of the juvenile on camera and instead focus on investigating the circumstances that led to the death by suicide.
NDTV cannot independently verify the video.
In the new video, the teenager says that she could not concentrate in her studies and therefore consumed poison as her marks would drop. She says that the hostel warden made her do other things, such as looking after the accounts and cleaning the hostel.
The teenager consumed poison at her home in Thanjavur on January 9 and died 10 days later. The hostel warden has been arrested under the Juvenile Act.
In earlier videos that surfaced after her death, the teenager says she was harassed and abused because her family refused to convert to Christianity. “Two years ago, they asked me and my parents to convert to Christianity. They said they would take care of my education,” the girl says in the video. Asked if she was targeted for not converting, she says, “Maybe”.
The BJP has alleged forced conversion and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
However, the police said that the teenager in her pre-death statement and her parents did not allege forced conversions while reporting to the police. Police said the parents also did not allege the angle of conversion in their statement to the magistrate.
Thanjavur police chief MS Rawali Priya Gandhapuneni said, “We are conducting a thorough investigation. We are recording the statements of potential witnesses, students and teachers, as well as checking their records.”
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