Father, aunt force unwed mother in Tamil Nadu to drink poison

TRICHY: The father and aunt of a 19-year-old woman were arrested on Friday for abetting her suicide in Trichy. The woman drank pesticide and died in a hospital on Thursday after the two shamed her for having a baby as she was not married, police said.
The family had abandoned the child, who was born at their home, on December 5, but police traced the mother. Fearing arrest and public humiliation, she drank the pesticide and was hospitalised on December 8.
Police said that in her dying declaration, the woman said her father Selvamani, 51, and his sister Malliga, 55, pressured her to commit suicide. "So, she consumed pesticide kept at home for agriculture purposes. They also purposely delayed taking her to hospital," Jeeyapuram police inspector Balaji told TOI on Friday.
A second-year degree student in a Trichy college, the woman had an affair with a 21-year-old relative of hers, the Jeeyapuram police said. The family members abandoned the baby near Thobavanam in Thirupparaithurai in Trichy.
The Thirupparaithurai village administrative officer Sureshbabu, 47, learned about the abandoned baby and informed the Jeeyapuram police.
The police traced the mother. After she drank pesticide, the girl was admitted to the Mahatma Gandhi memorial government hospital, where a magistrate recorded her statement on December 9.
The girl died early on Thursday. Acting on the girl's statement, the police arrested her father and aunt under IPC section 306. The newborn baby was being kept at the hospital. The Trichy child welfare committee will decide on his care.