NALGONDA: The death of Class 10 girl Irugu Asmita by suicide came close on the heels of a similar tragedy at the same social welfare residential school at Imampet in Suryapet district. An intermediate second-year BiPC student, Vaishnavi, hanged herself in her room in the hostel. Incidentally, Asmita lived in the room right opposite that of Vaishnavi. She reportedly even rubbed the feet of Vaishnavi when her body was brought down from the ceiling fan in a bid to revive her.
Tragically, Asmita, who had gone to her mother’s place at Chaitanyapuri in Hyderabad for ‘homesick’ holidays, died by suicide. According to her mother Jyothi, the girl would get dreams in which Vaishnavi would ask Asmita to join her. The girl reportedly lived in terror for some time.
When Jyothi told her daughter that she need not go back to the hostel if she was scared, Asmita said that she was alright and was planning to return to school. But, on Saturday, when Jyothi came back from work she found Asmita hanging from the ceiling fan. Jyothi took the body to her native village Burakacharla in Mote mandal for last rites.
Mote SI Yadava Reddy who handed over the body to Jyothi after a post-mortem examination, said that a case was registered under Section 174 of CrPC. The case was transferred to the Chaitanyapuri police for further investigation.
In a post on X, BRS MLC K Kavitha said, “It’s very unfortunate that two girls from the same school at Imampet died by suicide within a gap of a few days. Why students are resorting to suicides in social welfare hostels? The government is not paying attention to this issue because there is no full-fledged social welfare minister in the Congress government.”
(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050, Tele Manas - 14416 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)