Autopsy of Class 10 student found dead in Kolkata school confirms suicide; probe suggests she was suffering from acute depression

The autopsy of the Class 10 student, who was found dead on Friday in her school washroom in Kolkata’s Ranikuthi area in Tollygunge, confirmed that she had committed suicide, News18 reported on Saturday. The report said the cause of death was asphyxiation. Furthermore, the investigation into the death of the Class 10 student from GD Birla School revealed that she had developed suicidal tendencies in recent months and had also tried to kill herself at home once due to “mental pressure”. According to police sources, the initial investigation report also suggests that the handwriting in the suicide note matches the girl’s writing. [caption id=“attachment_3465774” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Kolkata Police. AFP[/caption] On Friday, the girl was found dead with her wrist slit and a plastic bag wrapped around her head inside a washroom on the school premises. A blood-stained blade was also recovered from the spot. The suicide note that the investigators found near the girls’s body revealed that she had been suffering from acute depression and trauma. “We are examining her mobile phone call records and email IDs to get some clues on why she took the extreme step,” said one of the investigators. Chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for the Protection of Child Rights Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborty said, “The girl’s mother told school authorities that earlier, too, her daughter had tried to take her own life by slashing her wrists. The matter seemed to have come to an end after she was counselled.” “I think the mother should have informed the school authorities that her daughter had suicidal tendencies. This could have saved her life. It is a very unfortunate incident and I don’t have words to express it,” she added. Joint Commissioner of Police Muralidhar Sharma visited the school on Friday and questioned the authorities and the girl’s parents. Sharma said the student had left her class around 1.30 pm to go to the washroom. After the teacher noticed her absence for an hour, school authorities began to look for her and found her body in the washroom. When asked about the content of the suicide note, the officer said, “It was written that the girl was under such stress that she could not sleep properly in the last three months. We have spoken to her parents, but they are also in such a trauma that we have limited our questioning.” The police said they were trying to find out the identity of the persons the girl had addressed in her suicide note. GD Birla was in the news in December 2017, as well, when two physical training instructors had been accused of raping a four-year-old girl. The incident had triggered mass protests among parents in Kolkata.