Thrissur: Foul play alleged in girl’s suicide

Thrissur: Mystery shrouds the death of a 10-year-old girl, who was found hanging from the wooden frame of the toilet on the premises of her rented house on the Beach Road at Edassery, Thalikkulam, last month.

A social activist, Bindu Ammini, who hit the headlines for her entry into the Sabarimala shrine following the Supreme Court order, has alleged foul play in the incident and flayed the Vadanappally police for their lethargy in probing it. The girl, Lathika Santhosh, a school student, was found hanging while her younger brother and sister were watching television. Her parents, who are daily wage workers, had gone out for work on that day.

Bindu, a functionary of an organisation called ‘Navodhana Kerala Sthree Koottayima,’ told mediapersons here the other day that she had visited the house of the deceased girl after she was alerted by persons in the locality about the mysterious death. “I came across several discrepancies in the statements while I spoke to the family members, including the kids and neighbours.  The old wooden frame is not strong enough to hold the weight of the child and an eyewitness told me that she saw the deceased girl with her knees on the ground and noose round her neck. She was always pleasant and the reason for her suicide was unknown. The parents said she could not even tie the lace of her churidhar. A neighbour told me about an unknown person who arrived at the spot ridding pillion on the scooter of a person in the locality,” Bindu said.

The police have not yet recorded the statement of the mother saying that she was not in a position to give a statement when they visited her house twice. The postmortem report said that the girl died due to hanging and that there were no marks of force on her body.

Vadanappally SI K.R. Biju said that the forensic report of nail clipping of the girl among other samples was awaited and no one in the locality had come out with any allegations.