A college girl allegedly committed suicide in Jharkhand after her pleas for construction of a toilet at home fell on deaf ears, police said on Saturday.
Seventeen-year-old Khoobu Kumari hanged herself at her Gosala Road Shashtri Nagar home in Jharkhand’s Dumka town, the police said, adding, at the time of the incident, her father, a truck driver, went to Pakur and her mother had gone to a nearby field.
Quoting family members, Dumka Superintendent of Police Vipul Shukla said that the body of Kumari, a BA student, was found hanging from the ceiling on Friday.
Her mother Sanju Devi said Kumari wanted that a toilet be constructed before her marriage proposal, the SP said. Her mother attributed paucity of funds as the reason for their inability to construct the toilet and marry her daughter off, Shukla said.
"A case of unnatural death has been registered," Dumka Superintendent of Police Vipul Shukla said.
"The incident is an eye-opener as it happened in the midst of Swachhta Abhiyan and construction of toilets for women," Deputy Inspector General of Police D B Sharma said.
In an official statement issued on Saturday, Dumka Deputy Commissioner Rahul Kumar Sinha termed the incident as "extremely hurtful".
Taking suo moto cognisance, Sinha ordered a police probe into the incident and asked them to ensure taking action against the guilty. "As per reports, a quarrel had ensued between the girl and her mother," the statement quoting the DC said.
The DC also issued directive to the officials concerned to carry out a survey of houses having no toilets in town areas or its adjoining villages and submit a report. He also ordered construction of toilets under the Nirmal Gram scheme by carrying out a campaign in one or two months and ensure every house in the district had a toilet, the statement said.
Image: The family of the girl mourns her death. Photograph: ANI/Twitter
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