'Fooled' by ad, boy kills self

In what is any advertiser's worst nightmare, a 10-year-old child committed suicide because he was not growing taller despite consuming a popular health drink that promised to do the same.

In what is any advertiser's worst nightmare, a 10-year-old child committed suicide because he was not growing taller despite consuming a popular health drink that promised to do the same.

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Rahul Singh, a student of Class V at a government school in Aman Vihar's Prem Nagar, was discovered hanging from the ceiling fan in his room on the evening of September 4.

"According to his family, Rahul took at face value the repetitive claims of advertisers of the popular health supplement shown on television," said a senior police officer.

"He bought a packet of the powdered drink from the local market and began drinking it regularly," the officer added.

"He would consume it daily, and keep marking his height on a wall. According to his family, he would also borrow his mother's and sister's chunni, tie one of its ends to the ceiling fan and the other to his hands and hang from it."

"I don't know what happened to him. He was a bright boy. That evening, he went to his room after returning from playing cricket," said Gayatri, Rahul's mother.

"When he didn't come out after a while, we broke into the room and saw him hanging," she added.

"Prima facie, it seems that Rahul was performing his usual 'exercise' in the room. When he saw that there was no marked increase in his height, he appears to have hung himself," the officer said.

Police said a case of causing death due to negligence, against unknown persons, had been registered at the Aman Vihar Police Station.

However, Rahul's grief-stricken mother lamented, "What good is the case? Who will the police arrest? I don't even know whose fault it is. Maybe it's the parents' fault that they let their children watch television," Gayatri said.