Kerala social media influencer Chinnu Papu found dead

Kasaragod: A 24-year-old rural-life influencer with 206,000 followers on Instagram died by suicide in Kasaragod on Monday. She leaves behind a four-year-old son.

The woman, known online as Chinnu Papu, has been identified as Reshma, a native of Adhur in the Delampady panchayat. She was found hanging by neighbours at her rented house at Choori in Uliyathadka near Kasaragod town around noon, police said.

They took her to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Her family was informed around 2 pm.

Reshma’s death comes barely a month after her divorce from her husband, Prajula, said her parents, Gangadharan and Shailaja, who are natives of Adhur in the border panchayat of Delampady. 

Her four-year-old son Dikshith was with them when she took the extreme step. 

Reshma was the middle child. Her two brothers, Ratheesh and Ranjith, urged the police for a thorough investigation into her death. They said they were not aware of Reshma being in any financial trouble.

They said Reshma and Prajula married five years ago, after courting for some time. After the divorce, Reshma moved to a rented house with her son in Choori for work-related convenience. When she travelled for video shoots, she would leave her son with her parents. At the time of the incident, the child was at the family home.

Her father, Gangadharan, a commercial jeep driver, said Reshma had been deeply distressed following the divorce. “But she made a conscious effort not to show it outwardly. She would keep everything to herself and rarely shared her problems with us,” he said.

Reshma was an active content creator across social media platforms under the username 'Chinnu Papu'. She built a large following through content centred on rural life, local cuisine, places, and the Tulu language. She typically posted once every seven to ten days. Her last post, shared six days before her death, featured a leafy vegetable and garnered around 5,800 likes. On average, her posts get around 10,000 to 12,000 likes on Instagram.

News of her death has sent shockwaves through the social media community and among residents of Kasaragod. Gopikrishna, a reel creator known for content on cars and technology, shared a message saying he could not comprehend how someone who walked around “with such a smile” could be gone just like that.

Police have registered a case of unnatural death and launched an investigation.