Accused of faking Facebook profile, daughter of Navy official jumps off south Mumbai building

The 16-year-old daughter of an Indian Navy official jumped off the 10th floor of a building in south Mumbai’s Navy Nagar on Monday morning, after she was accused of creating a fake profile of her classmate on social networking site Facebook

The 16-year-old daughter of an Indian Navy official jumped off the 10th floor of a building in south Mumbai’s Navy Nagar on Monday morning, after she was accused of creating a fake profile of her classmate on social networking site Facebook.

The police said Poonam Akhileshkumar Yadav, a Class 9 student, left for school as usual on Monday morning, but jumped to her death soon after. In his complaint, Poonam’s father said his daughter was pushed to suicide by her classmate’s parents, Shobhanharak Singh and Parvati, who harassed her about the fake profile. The Cuffe Parade police have registered a case of abetment to suicide against the parents and arrested Singh on Tuesday.

“In January, some unknown individual created a fake account of one of Poonam’s classmates. The profile, however, displayed the phone number of another classmate,” said an officer from the Cuffe Parade police station.

The parents of the second classmate claimed Poonam was behind this, even when she told them she wasn’t well-versed with Facebook. Poonam had told the parents her own account was created by her brother. The accused then started accusing her brother, the police said.

“The matter, however, was resolved after the parents of both children met in school and used the help of the girls’ teachers. Poonam’s father told us that after this meeting, the accused allegedly confronted Poonam outside the school and they started accusing her and her brother for the crime again. They were forcing her to accept she had done it,” the officer said.

The father of the complainant said she was constantly being harassed by Singh, which is what pushed her to commit suicide. Singh works as a lift man in the Navy.

The accused were booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code, and Singh has been sent to judicial custody.