Delhi: Man, 12-year-old girl ‘in love’ jump in front of train in suicide pact, both survive

The man and the girl said they were in love but her family was against the relationship because of the age difference. They blamed each other for the “suicide pact”.

A 22-year-old man and 12-year-old girl were severely injured when they jumped in front of a train in outer Delhi’s Narela in an alleged suicide pact.

A 22-year-old man and 12-year-old girl jumped in front of a train in outer Delhi’s Narela. (Parveen Kumar/HT File Photo)

The man, a factory worker, lost his legs and the girl suffered multiple fractures and other injuries when the train ran them over at the Narela station on Monday evening.

Talking to media separately, they said they were in love but the girl’s family was against the relationship because of the age difference. They blamed each other for the “suicide pact”.

Police, who picked them up from the tracks and took them to hospital, initially thought they were injured while crossing the tracks.

“In their statements, the girl and her mother didn’t mention the suicide attempt. We couldn’t question the man as he was unfit to give a statement,” a police officer said.

But by Tuesday evening, police had begun questioning him. “We will take legal action based on the facts that emerge,” deputy commissioner of police (railways) Parwaiz Ahmed said.

The two are from Bihar and have been living in the same building in Narela for some years, police said.

“For the last few days, she was insisting we marry but I wanted to wait for at least two years,” he said.

In India, the legal age for a girl to marry is 18.

She got “desperate” when she got to know that her mother was planning to send her to her aunt to their village in Bihar, he said.

“On Monday, she proposed that we kill ourselves. She said she would jump from the terrace if I didn’t join her,” the man said.

The girl told a news channel she did not want to be separated from the man but insisted it was he who said they should die by suicide. He reminded her of the beatings her mother would give her because of their relationship to build pressure on her.

If the girl repeats the statement to police, the man could face charges of egging her to commit suicide among other offences.