Hyderabad: Fed up with drunk brothers harassment, sister commits suicide

Hyderabad: Fed up with the alleged harassment of her brothers, 15-year-old Saba Begum allegedly committed suicide at her house in BK Guda on Wednesday afternoon. Now her younger sister Sara Begum, 12, wants to stay away from home as she fears that her brothers will trouble her too.

The three brothers of Saba Begum are addicted to alcohol and are heavy drinkers. Saba used to earn doing odd jobs near her house. Her father Mohammed Yousuf Miya, his wife and sons Azam, Mukram and Kareem, all work for daily wages while Sara goes to school.

An elder sister got married an year ago. Except for the two girls, all other family members are addicted to liquor. Saba who discontinued schooling in Class III supported her family and her younger sister with her meagre earnings.

Her brothers used to harass her for money and sometimes used to beat her up and her parents never objected to this. On Wednesday afternoon, Saba came home from work with her salary of around Rs 1,600. One of her brothers asked her for money. She refused and he beat her up severely.

Neighbours said her parents and other brothers were sleeping as they were heavily drunk. A troubled Saba locked herself up in a room and hanged herself. Her sister found her hanging and raised an alarm “When we went in, we found her family intoxicated and Saba was gasping for breath. We brought her down and tried to wake up her parents up, but no one woke up as they were all drunk,” a neighbour said.

After an hour, a passerby entered the scene and with the help of another person shifted Saba to Osmania General Hospital, where she died. The police registered a case of suspicious death. "Now that she is dead, they will force me to work and earn money for them. I don’t want to stay with them. I want to study,” 12-year-old Sara said.