Teen kills self after her objectionable clip goes viral

Lakhimpur Kheri: A 17-year-old girl committed suicide after her objectionable video clip made by a person of another community went viral on social media, a police official said on Sunday, adding that an SHO has been suspended.

The victim’s body was found hanging in her house on November 3, when her mother and sister had gone outside. Kheri SP Ganesh Prasad Saha told reporters that DSP (Pallia) Aditya Kumar Gautam has been asked to investigate the case and promptly file a charge-sheet to ensure punishment to the accused.

SHO of Sampurn Nagar police station Siyaram Verma was suspended on Saturday evening. Saha said the main accused (a 20-year-old Muslim youth) of the case has been arrested and investigations from all angles would be carried out as per the allegations in the FIR.

The main accused was arrested on Saturday. Police have registered a case against four persons - the main accused, his two brothers and father - under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 306 (abetment of suicide), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, POCSO Act, IT Act and Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act. IG Lucknow range Tarun Gaba also visited the spot on Saturday evening and spoke with the victim’s family, assuring them of “effective and prompt action” in the case.

Meanwhile, family members of the victim alleged that the accused and his family members were insisting on the minor to perform ‘nikaah’ (marriage) with the accused. The deceased’s sister alleged the accused was torturing and blackmailing the victim for a long time, which forced her sister to take the extreme step.

On Saturday, when the victim’s body reached her village after the post-mortem examination, villagers resorted to massive demonstration putting the body on the road and damaging the properties of the accused’s family. Local police attempted to dissuade the demonstrators from damaging the properties.

Kheri District Magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh along with SP Ganesh Prasad Saha rushed to the spot and held talks with the aggrieved family members and the demonstrating villagers. The DM and the SP persuaded the demonstrators to call off the agitation and the family performed the last rites of the victim on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the accused’s shop allegedly built on the PWD land, was on Sunday bulldozed, the UP Police said in a statement.