‘Girls are safe only in the mother’s womb or the grave’: Chennai student’s suicide note sends shockwaves across Tamil Nadu

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, December 20

“Girls are safe only in the mother’s womb or the grave”.

Two days after a teenage sexual assault victim’s heartbreaking suicide note written to her mother sent shockwaves in the state, a 21-year-old college student was arrested, NDTV said in its report.

On Saturday, the Class 11 student’s mother came home from the market to find her daughter hanging. The family lives in Mangadu on the outskirts of Chennai.

The mother was out only for an hour, NDTV said its report.

The student said in her note, which is now circulating on the internet, that she found it hard to sleep or study because she was haunted by the incident “even in her sleep”, blamed the society for making the world unsafe for girls, and said she found it hard to trust “relatives, teachers, everyone”.

 “Amma, I’m leaving for another world,” the girl writes in her note.

NDTV said in its report that the young man who was arrested in the case had “admitted” that he and the girl were close and that he’d harassed her.

The suspect faces criminal charges under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“The boy has confessed to a physical relationship with the minor girl. In the last two weeks, he had been harassing and torturing her. We have located filthy messages and the exchange of photographs. They had a good friendly relationship for eight months before all this,” NDTV quoted a police officer investigating the case as saying.

NDTV says in the report that the suspect was an alumnus of the girl’s previous school and that the two became friends over Instagram.

“Every parent should teach their kids and sons (to treat) girls with respect,” she wrote in the letter. “I think I’ll get justice,” she said.

She ended her letter with “Justice for me”.

The police are investigating whether the girl faced harassment from more people, based on the suicide note.

This comes as Tamil Nadu recently reported a rising number of suicide cases due to sexual harassment. At least two of those cases involved teachers, the NDTV report said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin recently addressed the issue. A video message he posted said he’d been disturbed by the reports and that people should “bravely report such cases instead of taking an extreme step”.

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— Ram Kumar (@RamKuma86060583) December 19, 2021

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