Government orders CID probe into tribal student’s suicide

Agartala, May 29 (PTI/IANS): A 17-year-old tribal girl student has committed suicide in Tripura after being allegedly harangued by employees of a hypermarket in the city and her school principal.
The state government today ordered a CID probe into it as the incident sparked anger among the people.
The girl had hanged herself from the ceiling in her residence at Bir Mohan Chowdhury Para in West Tripura district, about 23 km from here on May 24, the police said.
Tragically, the girl stood first in the state in the commerce stream of the Class twelve CBSE Examination.
The results were declared on May 26, two days after her death.
Several ministers of Tripura have expressed shock over the suicide and visited her home today.
According to the FIR lodged by the girl’s mother at Sidhai police station of West Tripura district she was allegedly harangued by the manager of a hypermarket here and the principal of her school.
Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Deb Burman said he had visited the girl’s home today and came to know that the employees of the hypermarket had allegedly scolded her claiming she had stolen clothes worth INR 4000 from it during her visit on May 23.
The girl had called up her school principal, who sent the money as demanded by the retail store. When the girl went to meet the principal she was subjected to verbal lashing by the principal.
She returned home and the next day after her mother left for work, took the extreme step, he said.
Deb Burman asked the Director General of Police A K Sukla to hand over the case to the CID for an impartial inquiry.
“Those who are involved in the tragic incident will not be spared,” he added.
Deb Burman told reporters that during his visit to the girl’s home he had found that her father had died two years ago and her mother, who runs the family with a meagre monthly income of INR 4000 working in a private school, is suffering from brain tumour. The girl’s brother is a minor.
“The government will provide INR 5 lakh to the victim’s family on humanitarian grounds and will do more as and when necessary,” the deputy chief minister said.
Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath described the incident as “very tragic and unfortunate” and said the guilty must be punished.
Revenue Minister N C Debbarma expressing his shock over the incident said
“I hope the CID will ensure stringent punishment against those who are involved in the tragic end of a bright student under provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.”
West Tripura district superintendent of police Ajit Pratap Singh said that a case under section 306 IPC (abetment to suicide) was lodged accusing the hypermarket and the school authorities for the suicide.
The police have interrogated the hypermart authority and seized the CCTV footage of the day when the girl was allegedly humiliated.
The girl entered the large retail store at 11 a.m and exited it at 1 p.m on May 23. We have seized CCTV footage of the day.
We have also seized the mobile phone of the girl,” he said.