Suspect held for rape of Karnataka girl who killed herself

Raichur (Karnataka), April 19 (IANS) A suspect was arrested in Karnataka's Raichur town for his alleged involvement in the rape of a girl and abetment of her suicide, police said on Friday.

"Suspect Sudarshan Yadav, 25, was arrested on Thursday for the alleged rape and suicide of the victim after her mother Rukmini Devi filed a complaint, alleging his involvement in the crime," police sub-inspector Prakash Dambal told IANS here, about 500 km northwest of Bengaluru.

Yadav, a self-employed youth, was charged under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sent to 14-day judicial remand for interrogation.

"Though Yadav's arrest was based on Devi's statement as he knew her daughter, his name was not found in a suicide note the victim left before she hanged herself on a tree behind a temple on the town's outskirts," Dambal said.

The victim, a sixth semester student of a private engineering college in the town, left home on April 13 to attend classes but did not return even by the same night or the following day.

"We came to know from a passer-by on April 15 about the victim's body at the spot, with her hands and legs bitten and some parts of them eaten by wild dogs as the place is located on a hilly ('ghat') section," Dambal recalled.

Based on the mother's complaint and the victim's note, police suspect the accused to have driven Devi's daughter to depression and commiting suicide by ignoring her over the last few months after befriending and courting her.

"As part of the investigation, we are interrogating him to ascertain his relationship with the victim, when he met her last, and if there was anything amiss which drove her to the extreme step of taking her life but not blaming anyone in the note," Dambal added.