Thiruvananthapuram: A 17-year-old teenager who was brought to the Nirbhaya Home for rape victims in the capital just a day ago hang herself on the bathroom ceiling on Wednesday as other inmates waited outside in a long queue for their turn to enter the bathroom for their morning ablutions. Though the girl was rushed to the Medical College, she was declared “brought dead”. The deceased, identified as Krishnapriya of Marthandam in Kanyakumari district, is said to have been suffering from bipolar disorder. Though there have been suicide attempts before, this is the first death to have taken place in a Nirbhaya Home.
It was only a day before, on Tuesday, that the teenager was brought to the Home here from the Nirbhaya Home in Palakkad where she had been lodged for nearly 10 months since June 25, 2015. The teenager was picked by the Railway police when she was found wandering in school uniform near Shornur. The girl had travelled to Shornur from Marthandam alone. Police sources suspect that there were men with her, but none could be nabbed.
Krishnapriya was transferred to the Home in the capital considering the wishes of her mother. “It would be easier for the mother to visit her daughter if she was lodged in the home in Thiruvananthpauram ,” said Ms Sheela, a member of the Thiruvananthapuram Child Welfare Committee.
The mother was not in a position to take the girl along with her. She was single; her husband had deserted her long before. “She is working in a cashew factory in Marthandam. She also does not have relatives with whom the girl could be trusted. It would be risky to leave a girl who requires special care alone at home,” Ms Sheela said. The CWC had also assured that the girl would soon be shifted to a special care home in Kanyakumari, nearer home.
Home authorities say that the girl wanted to go home with her mother. When the mother tried to reason with the daughter on Tuesday, she turned angry. “Just wait, I’ll show you,” she kept telling her mother. Authorities said that the girl took her medicines and had a good sleep.
