TN: Body of accused in rape and murder of minor Dalit girl found in Kalapet jail in Puducherry

Puducherry: G Vivekanandan (56), an undertrial in the rape and murder case of a nine-year-old Dalit girl in Muthialpet, committed suicide in the toilet of his cell in the Central Prison, Kalapet on Monday morning. Another undertrial accused in the case, Karuna (19), who was lodged in the same cell with Vivekanandan, heard a sound around 5 am and realised that Vivekanandan had committed suicide and raised an alarm, a jail official said. A case has been registered at the Kalapet police station and his body has been sent to the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital for post-mortem.

The nine-year-old Dalit girl was abducted, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered in March this year. The horrific incident came to light when the girl’s body was recovered in a sack from a drain near her house in Solainagar on March 5. The incident triggered massive outrage. Two neighbours of the victim, Vivekanandan and Karuna, were arrested and lodged in the central prison at Kalapet. In May, the police filed a 500-page chargesheet in the case. Jail superintendent V Bhaskaran had said on March 11 that Vivekanandan was harboring suicidal thoughts since his arrest.

On March 7, on the advice of Superintendent of Police (East) Lakshmi Soujanya, Vivekanandan was kept in a separate cell with his co-accused for security reasons. During counselling, he expressed remorse and wanted to end his life, officials said. Jail officials have been keeping a close watch on him since then, Bhaskaran said. A separate warder is keeping a close watch on the two inmates, he said.

Courtesy : Hindi News