TIRUCHY: Eight days after allegedly being forced to consume poison by her father and aunt for giving birth to a baby before marriage, a 19-year-old college girl died in Tiruchy GH on Thursday where she was undergoing treatment.
The accused were arrested for abetment to suicide on Thursday based on the statement given by the girl to a magistrate from her hospital bed on December 9, police said. According to police, the girl, who was in a relationship with a relative from the same village, gave birth to a male baby on December 5 on the roadside at Thirupparaithurai, about 1.5km away from her village Elamanur in Srirangam taluk in Tiruchy.
The abandoned baby was rescued on the same day by officials based on an alert by locals and is undergoing treatment at the same hospital. A case booked initially by the Jeeyapuram police on Thursday under Section 302 of IPC (murder) was changed to Section 306 (abetment to suicide) on Friday, police said.
The victim, a final-year BSc (Maths) student of a private college in Tiruchy, had hid her pregnancy from her family. Police sources said the man, with whom she had relationship, also feigned ignorance about the pregnancy. After getting wind of her daughter’s affair, her father Selvamani and aunt Mallika abused her and she consumed poison on December 8, police said.
The girl was admitted to Tiruchy GH for treatment on the same day. The doctors at the hospital and police arranged for recording her statement by a magistrate on December 9 after she complained to them about her family. We received that statement from the magistrate on December 15, police sources said. Police said the victim’s mother was not aware of the crime as she was at farm work at that time.
Mom not aware of crime: Police
The victim’s lover, who was present in the hospital when she was undergoing treatment, is on the run after her death, police sources said.