17-yr-old kills self in TN after sexual harassment, 1 held

CHENNAI: A 21-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a 17-year-old girl that led to the minor dying by suicide on Saturday, officials said on Monday. Three separate suicide notes, found in the girl’s room, mention an older student and relatives, the officials said. The arrest came two days after the girl’s mother found her dead at their house in the western Chennai suburb of Mangadu.

According to officials, the girl, a Class 11 student at a government school, met the arrested accused at a private school where she was two years his junior. “They got in touch via Instagram again. From the phone chats we have gathered that they were in a relationship when the abuse happened,” a senior police officer said.

The accused, now an engineering student in Chennai, was arrested on Monday after the police analysed the girl’s phone, the official said. “Her phone showed that she had the maximum contact with him and they were in contact for a while,” the officer said. He has been charged under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and for Section 309 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the official said. “We have the material evidence for sexual abuse and he also confessed to abusing her,” the investigating officer of the case said.

Meanwhile, the girl’s purported suicide notes, which have been widely circulated on social media, have led to an outcry.

In the notes, the girl wrote that she was unable to study or sleep, a police officer said. “Safety is only in the cemetery and in a mother’s womb,” the notes said. HT has seen a copy of the notes. The girl also urged people to teach their children how to treat girls and said people should not trust either relatives or even their teachers. She ended the note with “Justice for Me”. “We are continuing our enquiries with her family, school friends and teachers because she has also mentioned relatives and school in her suicide note,” the investigating officer said.