Excessive use of social networking platforms, including Instagram coupled with a stressed online relationship led to the death by suicide of a ninth-standard girl at Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad, said the Noolpuzha Police.
Adithyan, 20, a native of Kanichukulangara in Alappuzha was arrested on Friday on the charge of abettment of the suicide of the girl, whom he had never met in person.
The girl, a student of Government Higher Secondary School, Cheeral, was found hanging in a room at a relative’s house on January 20. Relatives of the victim claimed mental torture meted out at school as the reason for the suicide. A campaign was also launched in the village against the victim's class teacher.
However, the Noolpuzha Police have ruled out the possibility of mental trauma inflicted by the school authorities.
The police said the girl and Adithyan had established a relationship through Instagram and WhatsApp chats. According to sources in the police, a close perusal of the contents on the victim's mobile phone shed light on an online relationship with Adithyan that was allegedly stressful.
Noolpuzha Station House Officer AJ Amit Singh said that though the relationship lasted just three months, it had an intense effect on the girl, who asked Adithyan to marry her.
According to the SHO, the youth declined and neglected her chats, and switched his interests to other girls. “The girl, without referring to the name of Adithyan, had noted down that the cause of her death was love failure,” Singh said.
Amit Singh led a team that arrested Adithyan from his office in Ernakulam. He was produced at the house of a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
(Suicide is not the solution to any problem. Seek the assistance of a mental health specialist, if needed. Try to overcome the problem. Helpline numbers - 1056, 0471- 2552056)
