Kerala: 12th class student arrested for death of five-month pregnant classmate

Alappuzha (The Uttam Hindu): The Kerala Police on Friday arrested a 12th standard schoolboy for the death of a five-month pregnant classmate. The accused has been charged under the Pocso Act. On November 22, a class 12 girl student was admitted with fever at a state-run hospital in Pathanamthitta district. As her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to Alappuzha Medical College Hospital for better treatment.

On November 25, the victim girl breathed her last and the cause of death was said to be infection. However, police asked for a post-mortem report of the victim which revealed that she was five months pregnant. The police then collected the sample of the fetus and sent it for DNA testing. Police said that the parents of the girl had no clue of what had happened and on a thorough probe they (parents) were able to recover a suicide note written by the victim in which she asked her parents to forgive her for the wrongs she had committed.

In her suicide note, the victim said that she was consuming tablets in large quantities. The police suspect that this has led to medical complications and since she was pregnant, the intake of tablets led to infection which caused death. An official said that the police zeroed down on the girl’s classmate and after several rounds of questioning led to the arrest of the victim’s batchmate with whom she was in a relationship. Police said that the accused boy has admitted to the crime but had no clue of the girl consuming tablets in large quantities.

“The accused boy has admitted that they were in a relationship,” police said. The police found that the boy was 18 years and six months old and the crime took place when he was over 18 years while the girl was below 18 years. So the accused was booked under the Pocso Act. The police also collected the sample of the accused boy and sent it for DNA testing.