Classmate held for suicide abetment and blackmail

TNN | May 2, 2020, 07:29 IST

Ludhiana: Twenty-one days after an 18-year-old woman committed suicide at her house, the police have arrested her classmate for harassing and blackmailing her. Both were Class XII students.
In her complaint to the police, the woman’s mother said, “My daughter had hanged herself from a ceiling fan on the night of April 9. Days later, we learned that her classmate had raped her after befriending her. He had her objectionable pictures and videos and was blackmailing her. After he blocked her cellphone number, she took her life.”
Sub-inspector Harbhajan Singh said, “Initially, we had proceeded under Section 174 of the CrPC. But after receiving her family’s complaint, we arrested the accused, also 18-year-old, on Thursday evening. A few days after the woman’s death, the accused had visited her house to console her family. He had told them that they were classmates and good friends. Her family doubted him. Things fell in place when we questioned their classmates. We have seized the woman’s cellphone, but are yet to break its PIN lock.”
The accused has been booked under sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 294 (obscene act) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.