Madras HC reserves order on Tanjavur girl's suicide case

Madurai bench of Madras High Court has reserved the orders in a petition filed for transfer of investigation of a schoolgirl suicide case allegedly due to religious conversion.

The single-judge bench of Justice G.R Swaminathan of Madurai bench of Madras High Court has reserved the orders in the Tanjavur girl's suicide case allegedly due to religious conversion. 

The court heard the arguments of both parties. The petition was filed by the girl's father seeking the transfer of the case to CBCID or any other independent investigating agency. As per the parents, they have lost the faith in the investigation as several crucial documents related to the case were leaked.

The man who shot the video of the girl making the statements is also not cooperating with the investigation. He had given the mobile phone to the investigation agency on January 25 as per the court order but did not reveal anything about the number of videos recorded and the recipients of these videos. 

The prosecutor also said in the beginning that the girl had made a phone call to the helpline two years back allegedly due to ill-treatment by her parents. As per the prosecutor, 63 witnesses have been examined so far to ensure a fair and comprehensive investigation.

The petitioner's counsel M. Karthikeya Venkitachalapathy submitted that the child was repeatedly complained about the harassment by the hostel warden, she was assigned random tasks and forced to do other works like accounting which affected her studies. Also, he highlighted the aspect of availability of poison in the hall of the hostel which was within the reach of minor children.

The senior counsel appearing on behalf of the school informed the court that he has sent a confidential affidavit via mail which tells about the medical difficulties the child was facing due to conditions at her own home.

"We are not shying away from the investigation. We are ready to face the investigation either by the Police or the CB-CID. The transfer of investigation to CB CID does not concern us... Our only grievance is that certain allegations have been made by the petitioner that has detrimentally affected the institutional front and those associated with it...We don't do the conversion in our institutions. That's not our mission," he added, as reported by Live Law.

"We have taught over a million students in this time span. The majority of our students are Hindus. We don't discriminate on the basis of religion...The death of the girl child was a shock to all of us...it has now been politicised as a conversion debate", he submitted before the High Court.

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