Schoolgirl commits suicide in hostel

Peer pressure and academic stress is reported to have driven a 15-year-old hosteller of a leading South Delhi school to suicide, reports HT Correspondent.

Peer pressure and academic stress is reported to have driven a 15-year-old hosteller of a leading South Delhi school to suicide on Wednesday evening.

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Pushpanjali Raj, a standard XI student of Science, broke open the wired mesh of the bathroom window at the fifth floor of her hostel building and jumped out. (HT is withholding the school's name.)

Hearing a loud thud, a canteen boy working nearby rushed to the spot and found Pushpanjali lying in a pool of blood. He informed the school authorities at about 4 p.m. and she was rushed to Vasant Vihar's Holy Angels Hospital. "The student locked herself in the bathroom, cut open the window grille and jumped," confirmed the school's principal.

Pushpanjali, who hailed from Jharkhand, had joined the school two months back.

"She was an introvert and was under stressed owing to the tough competition," said a hostel mate on condition of anonymity.

Her body has been shifted to Safdarjung Hospital where a postmortem will be conducted .

Pushpanjali's elder brother Puroshatam Raj had visited her two days back. “She had complained of stress and peer pressure. Raj came down specially to talk to her and asked her to relax,” said Shilpi Padhi, a family friend.

She, however, refused to believe it was a suicide. "Just two days back we had met her and she was very happy," Padhi said.

"Prima facie it seems to be a case of suicide," said a police officer.