BHUBANESWAR : In a shocking case of apathy, parents of a fashion design student who died by suicide after allegedly being molested in the city had to wait for over a fortnight to convince police to register an abetment of suicide case.
Infocity Police registered a case of unnatural death on April 19, a day after the incident. This despite the fact that the victim, a 4th year student, had left a suicide note mentioning she was mentally disturbed after being molested at a college party.
The girl’s father who had seen her daughter’s note in the police station decided to lodge a complaint requesting to register the case as an abetment of suicide. He even sent a complaint through courier as well as by e-mail but the police reportedly claimed they never received it.
The girl’s father said he arrived in the city on May 4 but the police continued to express reluctance to register an abetment of suicide case. The victim’s family lives in Delhi.
On April 18, the girl died by suicide by hanging at her rented accommodation in Kanan Vihar area. “Since I was unable to reach Bhubaneswar after being informed about the incident, police asked me to give my consent to shift her body to a hospital which I did by sending an SMS,” said the grieving father who works with a private company in New Delhi.
However, when he reached Bhubaneswar on the morning of April 19, he was shocked to find his daughter’s body was still in the same hanging position. Later, police took the body to hospital for postmortem after which the last rites were conducted in the city.
However, the complainant continued to seek a detailed investigation after he came to know the fashion design student was possibly molested which led to the tragic incident but to no avail. His mail and courier went unheeded. “When I arrived here, the Infocity Police asked me to approach the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to get my case registered. It was only after I went to meet the ACP that a case was registered under section 306 of IPC for abetment of suicide on May 4,” he told this paper. Interestingly, the local police even said that investigation into the case will not gain any pace now as they are busy in election related duties, he claimed.