KOCHI: Unfolding further details in the death of a 16-year-old girl from Chottanikkara, who was found drowned in a quarry pond, the special investigation team has intensified efforts to verify whether any genuine Korean connection existed in the case. The deceased was an ardent fan of Korean films, web series and music, and had also been trying to learn the language, said a top source with Ernakulam Rural Police.
“We are primarily probing whether there existed any specific individual or group behind the alleged Korean contact. So far, there is no digital evidence confirming such a person. The victim’s mobile phone has been sent to the regional forensic laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram to retrieve data, including her Instagram accounts and chat histories. The results will take time,” Ernakulam district police chief K S Sudarsan told TNIE.
He added that there is no confirmed information regarding an alleged Instagram account named ‘Black Venom,’ and it has not been established whether the girl followed any such page.
Adding further, an officer with the probe team said that an initial examination of the phone did not reveal anything suspicious, prompting investigators to seek retrieval of chats, including deleted messages from social media platforms. Statements of the girl’s friends have been recorded, but none have pointed to the existence of a Korean friend. “We are also examining whether she may have been misled by someone else,” the officer added.
The Chottanikkara native girl was found drowned in a quarry pond on January 27, and a four-page suicide note was recovered from her schoolbag found near the quarry. In the note, she stated that she was ending her life as she could not bear the grief over the death of a Korean youth she had befriended through social media.