KOLLAM: Two teenage inmates of a state run After-Care Home for Girls at Anchalummodu, here, were found hanging from the staircase of the institution on Thursday. Both the inmates who had recently joined the care home were victims of sexual harassment.
According to the police, two separate suicide notes have been recovered from their bodies and all formalities, including the postmortem, were completed. Kollam City Police Commissioner Ajeetha Begum said preliminary investigation points fingers at severe mental stress that the girls had at the care home.
She said though no external influence could be linked to the death of the girls, police had begun a thorough investigation.
It was on Thursday morning the care home authorities spotted the girls aged 17 and 15 hanging from the staircase.
According to local accounts, one girl had joined the institution 18 days ago and the other nine days ago. One of the girls had shown suicide tendency before and she might have shared the idea of suicide with the other girl.
“Both the girls were sexually assaulted by persons known to them. One was assaulted by her father, and the other by her uncle and his friend. It seems that isolation and mental trauma had prompted the girls to take the extreme step,” said an officer who is part of the investigation team.