HYDERABAD: Two days after a 17-year-old girl, who was allegedly harassed by a youth, succumbed to her injuries in a hospital at Mahabubabad’s Narsimhulapet after attempting to die by suicide, the police apprehended a 23-year-old man in connection with the case. He was produced before the court on Tuesday evening and sent to judicial remand.
Police said the accused is a B.Tech graduate from Khammam. He allegedly harassed the victim at Suryapet’s Kodad, where the girl was pursuing her diploma course. On August 15, the girl came back to her house at Narsimhulapet and attempted to die by suicide as she was allegedly unable to bear the harassment.
“The victim consumed poison on the same day she reached home,” the police said, adding that she was immediately rushed to a hospital in Mahabubabad and was undergoing treatment. But her condition deteriorated and she passed away early on Sunday.
Speaking to TNIE, Mahabubabad SP K Sudhir Ramnath said, “A woman SI recorded the victim’s statement and we also recorded her dying declaration.” In her police complaint on August 17, the girl alleged that she took the extreme step as she was harassed by a man.
Based on a petition filed by the victim’s parents, the Narasimhulapet police registered a case under relevant sections of the POCSO Act and abetment to suicide of a child. “Further, as the victim belongs to the ST community and the accused is from a BC community, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was also added in the case,” the SP said.
On her deathbed, the girl expressed a desire to tie rakhi to her brothers. A video of the incident, which soon went viral on social media, shows her fondly kissing her brothers on their foreheads after tying rakhi to their wrists. Soon after this, she passed away.
