Ragging drives schoolgirl to commit suicide

CHENNAI: A 16-year-old girl student of a government higher secondary school in Tiruvallur, 50 km from here, committed suicide by hanging on Wednesday, allegedly after being ragged by senior boys.

Police registered a case under IPC Section 306 (abetment of suicide) and launched a hunt for three Plus Two students of the school. "The three students reside in Veda Colony, near the school," police said. Soon after the incident, the girl's family and relatives staged a protest, demanding the arrest of the three boys and some of the school staff.

K Thilagavathi, a Plus One student of the Madharpakkam Government Higher Secondary School, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her house by her father R Kumar on Wednesday evening. "The girl used to walk to school and had told her parents about the ragging by some senior boys," a police officer said. "But her parents didn't take her complaints seriously."

P Nagarajan, a relative, said the teachers also failed to take steps to prevent ragging even after her complaints. "It was mental torture that forced her to commit suicide," he said.

Initial investigations revealed that she quarrelled with a group of Plus Two students after they took her notebooks and refused to return them.

Some students told police that the boys described the girl as a "villager" and ragged her on December 10 and 16.

"We rushed to the spot after we got the information and shifted the body to the Ponneri Government Hospital for postmortem. Initially, the family members refused to receive the body in protest but later agreed after revenue officials and police officers promised that those responsible would be brought to book," a police officer said.