Chennai: The Supreme Court has allowed the CBI to take over probe into the suicide case of a 17-year-old girl in Thanjavur. It also refused to interfere with the Madras High Court’s order on handing over the probe to the central agency.
The teen had died by suicide after consuming poison at her home in Thanjavur on 9 January and died 10 days later. In a video, the girl alleged that the hostel warden had forced her to clean the hostel and do maintenance work after she refused to embrace Christianity.
The hostel warden has been arrested under the Juvenile Act apart from charges of abetting suicide.
The Supreme Court told the Tamilnadu government to not make the case a prestige issue by opposing the HC order for a CBI probe. The court further asked the TN police to hand over all the evidence collected until now to the CBI.
The Supreme Court also made it clear that the CBI should also probe the allegations of forced conversion.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M Trivedi issued notice on the appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu DGP challenging the Madras HC order.
The girl’s parents allege that there had been an attempt to convert the family to Christianity and are seeking an investigation in the matter.