The parents of a commerce student who ended her life by consuming pesticide have blamed harassment by her former classmate after the two broke up.
The girl, Nishandini (19), ended her life on Friday.
A resident of ISRO Quarters in Jeevan Bima Nagar, she had attended her Computer Science semester exam and had returned home in the evening around 4.30. Around 5.30 p.m., her father, P. Elumalai, heard her agonised screams from her room upstairs and rushed to her. When he found out she had ingested pesticide, she was taken to a private hospital where she died hours later.
The girl’s family blamed their daughter’s trouble on her former classmate Arul Das, whom she was dating earlier, as he was reportedly harassing her even after she split up with him.
Arul, who lives in the neighbourhood, is the son of a political leader.
Mr. Elumalai told the police Nishandini had cut herself off from Arul on his (Elumalai’s) advice but the boy continued to try to meet her near college and had even threatened to throw acid on her.
Her parents suspect the resultant stress could have led to the suicide.
The police arrested Arul and booked him for abetment to suicide.
Ends her life
Rekha (28), who was living with her parents after being estranged from her husband Anoopkumar, hanged herself in their home in Meenakshinagar in Kamakshipalya on Saturday.
The couple had been married four years and the birth of a daughter last year appeared to have soured their relationship. Recently, he had sent her a divorce notice.
Five conmen held
A gang of five that conned women of their jewellery after spooking them has been arrested by a special team formed by the West division police and gold worth Rs. 15.5 lakh, a car and a motorcycle have been seized.
The arrested are Imtiaz Yousuf (34) from Bangalore, Mohammed Syed Aleef (25) and Mohammed Khan (22) from Maharashtra, Mohammed Usman (34) from Gulbarga and Appanna (45) from Bidar.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) C. Rajappa said they usually targeted unaccompanied women by posing as policemen and made them nervous saying it was unsafe to wear jewellery as someone had been murdered for his/her gold nearby. The gullible women would oblige them by removing their jewellery, which the gang members would artfully switch for worthless stuff while wrapping them up for them.
The police said that apart from seven cases registered against them in the city, the suspects were also involved in 30 such cases across Mysore, Shimoga, Kundapur, Mangalore, Belgaum and Udupi.
The police are looking for four others — Yousuf Ashok Ali, Gulam Ali, Firoz Khan and Abbas.
Husband arrested
The Nandini Layout police have arrested Mohan, the husband of Sunita (23), who had been found dead at her home in Parimalanagar on May 7.
The police said Mohan murdered his wife of four years as he suspected her of infidelity. The police had initially registered a case of unnatural death but the post-mortem report cited death by asphyxiation.
