Indore girl kills self over harassment, family alleges police inaction against accused

A 17-year-old girl hanged herself at her house in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Thursday and left a suicide note saying she was being stalked, sexually harassed and blackmailed by a man in her neighbourhood, police said on Friday.

Her family has alleged that police failed to act on their complaint for over 50 hours against the man, who had been harassing their daughter for some time. The Class 12 student said in her suicide note, which was found by police, that the man harassing her had uploaded her photograph on Facebook.

“Father I am sorry. It is not my fault. He was harassing and blackmailing me. He has put my photo on Facebook which has ruined my image. He also made me write two letters in your name,” she wrote in the note.

“He harasses me whenever I go to school and forcibly tries to talk to me. I am fed up with everything. I do not want your image to get tarnished in any way. People are blaming me for all this. Sorry, forgive me father, I thought that if I am not there, then all this will end,” she added.

Indore’s DIG Harinarayanchari Mishra said the accused, his father and brother have been booked for abetment to suicide and were taken into custody late on Thursday night.

“I have suspended a head constable and a sub-inspector of Dwarkapuri police station for the delay in (taking) action (against the complaint),” Mishra added.

Police said the girl’s younger brother told them that his sister was being harassed by the man, who lives in the same neighbourhood. The girl’s family came to know on Tuesday that the accused had taken her photograph and uploaded it on Facebook and other social media platforms.

The man refused to delete the photographs when the brother asked him to do so, police added.

The family said they approached the police and were assured that they would take action against the man. They went to the police station again on Wednesday morning but officials there told them there was no woman constable and they could not register their complaint.

The police went to the accused’s house on Thursday but did not do anything, the family alleged. There was a fight in the girl’s family over the issue on Thursday night, after which she went to her room and hanged herself.