KOLKATA: An adolescent girl died by suicide in Howrah, West Bengal, hours after she was molested by a civic volunteer (CV), who was arrested amid public outrage.
The incident occurred in the Penro area of Howrah district on Wednesday morning, when her body was found hanging from the ceiling of the family residence.
Civic volunteers are appointed by the state government on a contractual basis to assist police personnel with traffic control and management.
According to local police and residents, the accused CV, Laltu Mukhopadhyay, allegedly molested the girl when she had gone with her mother to her maternal uncle’s residence in the nearby Amta area on Tuesday to see the local Kali Puja festival. Her mother works as a maid at Laltu’s residence.
Laltu had also gone to Amta separately and found the girl at the festival. He behaved indecently with her and allegedly sexually molested her when she went to a toilet.
The girl was psychologically distraught from the humiliation following the incident. She returned home to Penro on Tuesday and died by suicide.
Her family lodged an FIR at Penro police station. Locals staged a demonstration and gheraoed the policemen, preventing them from taking away the body for post-mortem examination. The protesting residents also demanded the immediate arrest of Laltu.
Police finally arrested him from the locality.