
BHOPAL: A 16-year-old girl from Assam was found dead in the hostel room of a missionary school in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh.
The educational institution management has alleged it as a case of suicide, and the police too are suspecting it to be a suicidal death. The local VHP leaders, however, are demanding a deeper probe into the matter.
The teenage girl identified as Pratima Bhagwar – originally hailing from Sonitpur area of Assam’s Golaghat district – was enrolled in the school for the last six months and was staying in the hostel run by the same institution.
As per the hostel staff, on Sunday evening, the teenage girl allegedly hanged herself to death while there was no one else in the room. She was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors declared her brought dead.
“The girl was enrolled in the Pushp Sadan Convent School-cum-hostel last year. On Sunday evening, we were informed that she had died by suicide. The body has been kept in the mortuary after the autopsy, and her family in Assam has been informed about it," Satna Civil Lines police station in-charge Yogendra Singh Parihar said.
"An inquest report has been lodged in the matter, and further investigations are underway,” he added.
While the police are investigating the possible causes behind the alleged suicide, according to informed sources, the teenager had talked to her sister in Assam over the phone a few hours before the alleged suicide.
Though the police suspect it to be a case of suicide, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists in Satna district have alleged atrocities in the hostel to be behind the girl’s death.
“After the girl’s death, an important official of the educational institution first introduced himself as the relative of the deceased girl, but later changed his statements, saying that she wasn’t related to her as he was an official there. Why such contradictory statements within a few minutes? The police should investigate the matter in detail, rather than treating it as a case of suicide,” VHP leaders Abir Dwivedi and Vikram Chaudhary alleged.
According to sources privy to the ongoing police investigation, the deceased girl’s phone has been seized, and multiple persons associated with the hostel and the school are being questioned.
(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.)