An abetment of suicide case has been filed at the court against three individuals concluding that Shaleen Pokharel, a student at Ekata Shishu Niketan in Ratnanagar, Chitwan, committed suicide.
Shaleen, 14, who had been staying at the school's hostel had committed suicide at 10:15 am on February 24.
Twenty days after the incident, an abetment of suicide case was filed against Principal Balhari Devkota, teachers Kiran Bahadur Adhikari, and Kamal Prasad Sharma. Adhikari and Sharma are also the hostel wardens.
The police investigation reveals some evidence of abetment of suicide. She had minor arguments with her hostel mates before committing suicide, the investigation shows.
According to the statements given by her hostel mates, she had a minor argument with her friends over a packet of instant noodles on the morning of February 24 when the incident occurred.
The instant noodle which went missing from the box of a hostel girl senior to Shaleen on February 23 was found in the box of Shaleen.
Her school mates stated, "We three including Shaleen decided to eat instant noodles on the evening of February 23. A packet of instant noodles was in the box of the senior hostel mate. But, it was missing when we looked for it. Then we went to bed by eating biscuits."
The next day was Saturday. Teachers told us to clean the rooms. Saleen and her hostel mates gathered together to clean the rooms. The issue of the lost noodles was also raised among them while cleaning the rooms. One of them proposed to search all the boxes. Shaleen and her friends also opened their boxes. Two packets of instant noodles were found in Shaleen's box.
After finding the instant noodles in her box, her hostel mates cast doubts on Shaleen for having stolen money and other goods lost earlier. Hostel mates during the statement revealed that Shaleen admitted to having stolen only food, not the money and other goods.
"Shaleen was reminded that she was now grown-up and should not commit such a pilferage. Then Shaleen took out a key from her pocket and gave it to her senior hostel mate," one of her friends stated.
The bell rang for the lunch. It was 9 am. Shaleen had reiterated to her elder hostel mate that she had not stolen the money.
"Let's forget it. Do not repeat such mistakes in future," her elder hostel mate reminded her. Then, two of her roommates headed towards the canteen for lunch. Shaleen stayed back in the room.
When they came back from the canteen, Shaleen was in the room with the door locked from inside.
They informed their hostel wardens about it. They repeatedly told her to open the door. When she did not open it, the warden pushed the door open. What they saw was the body of Shaleen dangling from the ceiling.
The basis of abetment of suicide
Immediately after the incident, Shaleen's father Dipendra Pokharel lodged an FIR against three teachers of the school on murder and rape charges.
However, the report of postmortem, suicide note, and forensic report did not support the claim made by the petitioner.
After concluding that she committed suicide, a case of abetment of suicide has been filed at the court arguing that the three teachers were found guilty in abetting Shaleen to commit suicide.
The abetment of suicide case has been filed at the court seeking five years' imprisonment against the perpetrators along with a fine of Rs 50,000.
Now a bail hearing will take place at District Court Chitwan. The court will issue an order on whether to send the defendants to judicial custody for further investigation or deal with the case by releasing them on general date.
