In the suicide note we have found that a group of men had gone to the girl’s home in the evening, confirmed police.
WEB DESK
A local leader of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) from Mudigere region in Chikmagalur has been arrested for allegedly harassing a 20-year-old girl to the extent that it reportedly drove her to commit suicide.
According to media reports, Dhanyashree, a first-year student of B.Com, was hounded by youth activists affiliated with organisations such as the Bajrang Dal and the BJYM after she supposedly said on a WhatsApp group that she had a liking for people hailing from the Muslim community.
Dhanyashree committed suicide on January 6 after being subjected to constant harassment on social media by the accused and other members of the groups in question, said media reports.
The victim’s mother, in her police complaint, said that Dhanyashree first received a call from an unidentified caller on January 4 of this year, where she was questioned about her WhatsApp message.
Later identifying himself as Santosh, a Bajrang Dal activist from Mangalore, the caller also allegedly asked the victim why she was dawning a headscarf in a few of her photographs posted on social media, said her mother in the complaint.
Recalling the incident, the victim’s mother said that she also spoke to the caller on one occasion when the caller reportedly told her to “control” her daughter or else he would post embarrassing pictures of her daughter on social media for the world to see.
As told to the police by the victim’s mother, a group of men who identified themselves as Bajrang Dal activists even visited the victim’s residence the very next day and threatened to defame Dhanyashree.
On January 6, Dhanyashree, who was alone at home, killed herself. Reports suggest that she left behind a suicide note in which she said that she could not bear the harassment by “Hindutva activists” and their false claims that she was involved with a Muslim boy since the harassment had caused humiliation to her family members.
Based on the mother’s complaint, Chikmagalur police arrested local BJYM leader Anil Raj and are currently on the lookout for other activists mentioned in the complaint.