Girl dies under suspicious circumstances

Chennai: Relatives of a 22-year-old girl, who died at the Government Stanley Hospital on Thursday, staged a road roko on Walltax Road near the Central railway station, alleging kidnap and sexual assault by a man, which led to her death. However, the police maintained that the girl’s suicide attempt after her family chided her for eloping had caused her death.

The girl, M.Jayashree, went missing from her home in Vyasarpadi on November 24. She was traced to Kallakurichi in Villupuram district and brought back home. In a state of shock since then, she complained of uneasiness on Thursday morning, and family members took her to Stanley Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. Police said that the girl worked at a steel factory and lived with her aunt Kaantha, her mother having died young. Kaantha registered a missing complaint with the Seven Wells police the day she disappeared. 

On November 27, her relatives learnt of her whereabouts and reached Kallakurichi where a local politician had provided her shelter after she was found lying unconscious at the bus terminus.Her brother Elumalai said that the girl found it difficult to walk, appeared mentally disturbed and there were strangulation marks on her necks and arms, which the local police confirmed.

The police have registered a case of death under suspicious circumstances and are investigating the role of the youth, Francis, who is alleged to have kidnapped the girl, and are also probing if she attempted suicide, leading to the strangulation marks.