TN girl attempts suicide after neighbour sexually harasses her

CUDDALORE: A 15-year-old girl, who was sexually harassed by her neighbour, attempted suicide by setting herself on fire in a village in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
The Class X girl sustained 70% burn injuries and was admitted to Vridhachalam Government Hospital. Later, she was referred to Villupuram Government Medical College Hospital.
Police arrested E Ranjith Kumar, 27, a married man, on charges of sexually harassing her and forcing her to take the extreme step of ending her life.
Police said Ranjith Kumar had been stalking the girl for the past few weeks and forcing her to yield to his sexual desire. The girl, who was turning down his sexual advances, at a point of time could not bear the harassment. When she was alone at her home on Tuesday evening, she doused kerosene on her and set herself ablaze. On hearing her scream, her neighbours rushed to her house and managed to save her. She was admitted to Vridhachalam Government Hospital, where a police team made preliminary inquiries.
The girl narrated to police the ordeals of harassment by her neighbour. She said Ranjith Kumar claimed he had taken videos and photos of her without her knowledge and threatened that he would release the videos and photos online. She added that he continued to pressurize her to yield to his romantic advances.
Vridhachallam all-woman police sub-inspector A Potta said the married man made false claims of taking videos and photos as he was not using a smartphone. “We made elaborate inquiries and examination and found that the accused had made a false claim of possessing videos and photos of the minor girl. He uses a mobile phone that does not have such features. Our investigations also revealed that he was not in possession of any other mobile phone that has such features with a different service provider,” said Potta.
The police booked Ranjith Kumar under sections 11 (sexual harassment) and 12 (punishment for sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Aact, 2012 and Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and arrested him. He was remanded in judicial custody.