5 Arrested In Andhra Pradesh Over Minor Girl’s Death By Suicide: Cops

Andhra Pradesh Police arrested five persons on Tuesday in connection with the death by suicide of a minor girl student, who made sexual harassment allegations against her college officials, said an official.

The 17-year-old girl ended her life by jumping to death from a building in the intervening night of March 28 and 29, alleging that some unidentified persons had threatened to post her objectionable pictures on social media.

Police arrested five persons from Kommadi Chaitanya Polytechnic College in the port city. Those arrested were: N Shankar Rao, chemistry lab technician, Shankar Varma, head of college management, G Bhanu Praveen, principal, V Usha Rani, hostel warden and V Pradeep Kumar, husband of Rani.

Visakhapatnam North assistant commissioner of police (ACP) B Sunil told PTI the initial investigation pointed to Rao as the person who allegedly sexually harassed the killed student.

“Shankar Rao is not admitting but in our investigation all the girls have pointed the finger at him. The girl’s close friends have also said that. He will be interrogated further,” said Sunil.

The arrested persons were booked under IPC Sections 305, 354 A, 354 C, 506, Section 12 of POCSO Act and other sections under the Prohibition of Ragging Act.

The ACP noted that the five arrested persons will be produced in front of a Judge on Wednesday.

Earlier, C Nagarani, Director, Technical Education, Andhra Pradesh said she formed a committee to probe the incident and its report is awaited.

“A deeper enquiry is going on over the incident with some persons being summoned to the police station on a daily basis,” C Nagarani told PTI.

According to C Nagarani, five of the student’s seven teachers were women and the remaining two were men, including the principal of the college and an engineering drawing teacher.

Further, she said the lab assistants were also being enquired by the police.

Police have questioned the management of the college, the student’s friends, roommates, parents, regular contacts and suspects to unearth the truth. However, the ACP noted the girl was not raped.

He said the final post-mortem report is awaited.

Moreover, officials noted the student of the private college was a bit irregular, and are also contemplating a probe on her psychological state as well.