VIJAYAWADA: Sixteen-year-old first year Intermediate student M Tejaswi Manasa, who committed suicide by hanging herself at her house at Sivaparvatinagar in Yanamalakuduru here on Wednesday, unable to bear the harassment by a youth who demanded that she should reciprocate his love, was a brilliant student, according to her father M Madhusudhana Rao, a private company employee.
Distraught with grief over the loss of his daughter, he told Express here on Thursday that his beloved daughter had never minded anything but her studies.
Meanwhile, Tejaswi’s friends described her as a no-nonsense girl, very compassionate and a little introvert. “She was a brilliant girl and has secured Grade A in her first year Intermediate examination, the results of which have been released Thursday. But she is not in this world to celebrate the occasion,” one of her friends said.
Tejaswi, a biology student at Maris Stella College here, suffered silently when her childhood schoolmate Renuka Rao, 19, kept stalking her wherever she went and always pestered her to reciprocate his love. In her suicide note, she named Renuka Rao as the one who was responsible for her action.
Her death has shaken the family as she was the only daughter to Madhusudhana Rao and Sailaja. Sailaja runs a beauty parlour at home to supplement the family’s income.
Tejaswi in her suicide note said Renuka Rao was pestering her to accept and reciprocate his love for the last one year. On learning this, her mother had reportedly Renuka Rao to stop harassing her.
After Sailaja’s warning, Renuka Rao began harassing the hapless girl all the more. He allegedly threatened to kill her if she continued to ignore his demand and then himself commit suicide.
He very frequently used to give ‘missed calls’ to her from different phone numbers in the hope that she would call him back. He also used to send her unpalatable messages to her.
According to Penamaluru circle inspector MVV Jagan Mohan Rao, on Wednesday, Tejaswi’s father went to the office as usual and her mother went to temple, leaving Tejaswi alone at home.
She then ended her life by hanging herself from the ceiling fan with her ‘dupatta’. Her mother was the first to return home and find the tragic end of Tejasawi’s young life. While her body has been sent for a postmortem, the police are yet to arrest Renuka Rao.