TN girl’s suicide death: Man behind controversial video clip belongs to VHP

In a dying declaration three days before her suicide death on January 16, the girl, who studied at a Christian residential school in Thanjavur district, accused her hostel warden of corporal punishment

CHENNAI: A video clip made two days before the death of a 17-year-old tribal girl in Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur district, sparking claims by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that she died due to forced conversion, was filmed by P Muthuvel, a member of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), HT has found.

The girl studied at a Christian residential school in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu. (Archives/ Representational image)

Muthuvel, who was arrested in 2019 for attacking two Christian preachers in the district, did not report the alleged conversion to the police before the girl’s death, and shared the video clip on social media only after she died by suicide.

In her dying declaration before a judicial magistrate, the girl blamed her hostel warden, who is in custody, of constantly hitting her and scolding her and did not mention conversion as the reason behind her decision to kill herself.

On January 17, an FIR was lodged against the hostel warden over the girl’s suicide. Police probed the matter and learnt that the girl was facing pressure at home from her step-mother and never mentioned the issue of conversion.

But the case took the conversion angle once the video clip of the girl was circulated on social media. The BJP cited the footage as what it claimed was evidence of alleged forced conversion and held protests across Tamil Nadu.

In a dying declaration before judicial magistrate 1 Thanjavur three days before her death on January 16, the girl, who studied at a Christian residential school in Thanjavur district, accused her hostel warden of corporal punishment.

The girl said in her declaration that the warden told her in Tamil “to go die”. She also claimed that the warden allegedly hit her and scolded her. The girl was allegedly refused leave including when she was sick and during the Christmas holidays, and made to stay back to work. “She tortured me… She is the cause behind this,” the girl told the magistrate in her declaration, a copy of which HT has accessed.

An assistant physician on duty recorded that the “patient was conscious, oriented and in a fit state of mind throughout the recording of the dying declaration”.

A day after the declaration was recorded, Muthuvel recorded a 45-second video clip, which purportedly shows the girl saying that the warden urged her parents to convert her to Christianity two years ago and promised to sponsor her education.

“Could be,” the girl purportedly responds in the video when the person recording it asks her if the alleged harassment happened because she didn’t convert.

Muthuvel, who handed over the phone that was used to record the video to the police on Tuesday for forensic analysis as per the Madras high court’s directions, was among three people arrested in February 2019 for assaulting two Christian preachers.

On January 24, the high court, which is hearing a plea for a CB-CID probe into the matter, observed that the girl’s parents confirmed there was a conversion attempt.

Muthuvel claimed the girl’s parents asked him to record the video when he went to meet them on January 17.

The girl told the magistrate that she consumed pesticide on January 9 at the hostel, but didn’t tell anyone about it and she was being treated for vomiting. She was taken home on January 10 and then rushed to a hospital on January 15, where she died four days later.

A police officer said Muthuvel waited for two days and released the video after the girl, who topped her Class 10 exams, died. “The child’s uncle has friends in the VHP, though he is not a member, and that is how Muthuvel got involved,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.

The warden, 74, was arrested on January 18 on charges of harassing the girl. A preliminary police probe suggested the girl, whose mother is no more, did not have a supportive home environment. Her father, a dairy farmer, lives with her stepmother.

“Several people including school students told us that she wanted to stay back in the hostel and not go home [even during holidays],” said the officer. “Since she was in the hostel most of the time, the warden would ask her to do some work. She was a bright student, so she was made to handle the accounts.”

Inspector general of police S Balakrishnan said the girl may have faced pressures. “The suicide seems to have been triggered by several angles. We are investigating all of them,” he said.”