The Hindu : Sport : Three girls die in quartet’s suicide pact

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Sunday, Aug 12, 2007
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Sport

Three girls die in quartet’s suicide pact

Staff Reporter

One recovering in hospital; motive for the step remains mysterious

Bangalore: In an incident that has shocked the city, four students entered into a suicide pact on Saturday in which three died.

While R. Divya, M. Ammu and N. Jayanthi died in Victoria Hospital, Y. Hamsaveni is progressing in a private hospital.

Jayanthi, who was pronounced brain dead on being brought to the hospital, died later in the evening.

The four girls were studying in 10th standard at Nagaraj Memorial School, K.P. Agrahara on Magadi Road here.

According to Sudhakar, their headmaster, the four were always together. “They were very close friends. They were bright students and we were expecting them to score distinction in the SSLC examination. They were in school till noon and left soon after the last period,” he said.

Insecticide and tablets

The police said that the girls, who came from not very well-off families, laced an insecticide with 10 unidentified tablets around 12.30 p.m. A passer-by found them throwing up near the St. Philomena’s Church in the Railway Colony on Magadi Road and rushed them to Victoria Hospital in an autorickshaw.

K.R. Ravindra of Department of Medicine, Victoria Hospital, said two girls died of respiratory failure.

Suicide note

In their suicide note in Kannada, the girls said that no one was to be blamed for their action, neither their teachers nor their families. “We do not wish to live any more. We have not taken this step in haste. Please donate our eyes and do not subject our bodies to post-mortem. Please conduct our last rites together. Though we were not born together, we want to be united in death. Do not show our bodies to the media.”

S. Vilwanathan, Hamsaveni’s uncle, said he spoke to her briefly.

“When I spoke to her, she said Ammu and Jayanthi pushed her to take this step. We did not want to question her as she is weak and sensitive right now.”

According to K.V. Sharat Chandra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), Hamsaveni was the last to consume the insecticide, which probably saved her life as there was very little left for her.

The police will question her after she recovers completely.

A case of attempted suicide has been booked by the Magadi Road police.

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