Madurai High Court Directed To Hand Over The Phone To Investigating Officer Regarding Thanjavur Girl's Suicide Case

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday demanded that the phone used to capture the video of a Thanjavur girl who died by suicide be provided up to the investigating officer on Tuesday, January 25. The BJP is using a footage filmed by Muthuvel to imply that the administration of the Christian missionary-run school attempted to forcefully convert her into Christianity.

Justice G.R. Swaminathan also ordered to the parents of the girl and Muthuvel to be present before the investigating officer. Deputy Superintendent of Police R. Brindha, at the Vallam Camp Office on Tuesday at 10 a.m. to give their statements. The judge said that the investigating officer was ordered by the court to submit the phone, as well as other items, to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Chennai the same day. The director of the laboratory is required to submit a report on the materials' authenticity.

The court ordered the Thanjavur Forensic Laboratory to deliver the viscera report and the post-mortem report to the investigating officer by January 27. On Monday, the court received a copy of the statement presented to the Judicial Magistrate by the girl's parents. The judge further asked a copy of the statement to be given to the investigating officer and postponed the case's hearing until January 28.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the girl's parents, who asked for a CB-CID investigation into her death. She was allegedly forced to do domestic tasks at the hostel and asked to convert into Christianity.

The state administration claimed that other students' and faculty's responses were also being collected. A forensic examination of the mobile phone used to record the video was required.

Meanwhile, the case came into existence when a 17-year-old girl student from Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district died on Wednesday, just days after she committed suicide, claiming mistreatment and attempting to convert her family to Christianity. Following the girl's death, an unverified video appeared in which she claimed her family's unwillingness to convert to Christianity was the cause of her dormitory warden's maltreatment. Independent verification of the footage was not possible. The youngster is heard claiming in the video that they wanted her father and herself to convert to Christianity two years ago. They claimed to be responsible for her schooling. 'Perhaps,' she said in response to a question about whether she had been singled out for her refusal to convert.