Girl ends life after father refuses to give her mobile phone

The official said that the girl was upset over her father’s refusal to buy a mobile phone for her. (Representational image)

A 17-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide near here after her father apparently refused to buy her a mobile phone, police said today. The teenager on Wednesday set herself ablaze at home in Sankhalim village, about 45 kms from Panaji, when her mother was taking bath and her father had gone to drop her elder sister to college, an official at the Bicholim police station said.

When the mother came out of the bathroom, she found her daughter in flames and tried to douse them, he said. The mother then rushed the girl to a community health centre at Sankhalim where she succumbed to her burns, he said. The official said that the girl was upset over her father’s refusal to buy a mobile phone for her. The police have registered a case in connection with the incident, he added.