Lucknow: Teen found hanging in shelter home, police suspect suicide

TNN | Apr 22, 2020, 07:05 IST

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LUCKNOW: A runaway Sitapur teen, who was kept at a government shelter in Naka, a month after police rescued her from Punjab where she eloped with her beau, was found hanging in the shelter’s washroom late Monday.
District magistrate, Lucknow, Abhishek Prakash, has ordered a magisterial-level inquiry into the death.
The shelter home administration claimed the girl wanted to go home, but committed suicide when her parents refused to take her back, citing lockdown curbs. The 13-year old had secretly married and fled with her boyfriend in February and was brought to the shelter home after police tracked her down in Chandigarh. Reeta Tamta, shelter home superintendent, said the girl’s roommate found her hanging from a dupatta fastened around a grille in the bathroom. “We called police and handed over the body. Her roommate had found her crying since morning. She claimed, the girl took her life because her parents did not take her home,” said Tamta.
SHO, Naka, Sujeet Dubey said, “Prima facie it appears to be suicide. The body has been kept in mortuary and police are waiting for her parents to give consent for autopsy.”
Police said, the girl left home and married a boy without informing her parents. Her father lodged a missing complaint, following which she was found in Chandigarh. The girl was then unwilling to go back to her parents and the child welfare committee, Sitapur, sent her to a women’s shelter home in Motinagar area of Lucknow on March 2.
After counselling at the shelter home, the girl decided to go back to her parents, but by then lockdown came into force. She spoke to parents over phone and expressed willingness to return. The shelter home administration also requested her parents to take her home due to the Covid-19 crisis and assured them they would get a pass on recommendation of the child welfare committee.
Tamta said, parents of five other girls, all Sitapur residents, took back their daughters from the shelter home during the lockdown. But despite several requests by the girl, her parents did not come, citing lockdown, she said.