16-year-old girl in Dehradun shelter home may have died due to poisoning

HARIDWAR: The 16-year-old Balika Niketan inmate, accused of murdering her own mother, who was found dead with her neck tied to a door handle in Dehradun on Wednesday, may have died of poisoning and not strangulation.
Sources in Doon’s Coronation Hospital, where the girl’s autopsy was performed, said, “The girl didn’t die due to hanging or strangulation. In fact, her death happened due to poison.”
The post-mortem report, according to the health department’s claims, had remained inconclusive and her viscera samples will be sent to an Udham Singh Nagar centre for further examination.
On Thursday, police had claimed that she had hanged herself from a door knob barely 2-3 feet from the ground.
Explaining why strangulation and hanging are being ruled out, a senior medical officer said, “Neither was there any circular mark around the girl’s neck, which develops at the time of hanging, nor were saliva droplets found on the lips or tongue to prove that the girl had hanged herself.”
The minor girl’s father works as a labourer in Rupnagar district of Punjab while her mother was allegedly a sex worker based in Kankhal area of Haridwar. The girl stayed with her father. In September 13, 2018, her mother brought her to Haridwar on the pretext of education. However, the girl claimed she forced her into prostitution.
GRP sub-inspector Anuj Singh, who monitored the case in 2018, said, “The girl was annoyed with her mother. On September 15, she struck several blows on her mother’s neck with a ‘pathal’ (khukrishaped knife) which proved fatal. Thereafter, she left for Punjab to stay with her father. We contacted her father and she was brought to Haridwar where she confessed and said that she killed her mother as she had forced her into prostitution.”
Women’s rights panel team visits Doon shelter over death
After arrest, the girl was kept at Haridwar’s Nari Niketan. According to shelter home staff, she was not liking her stay at the Balika Niketan and had requested the caretaker to shift her back to the observation centre.
A former employee of the shelter home said, “Balika Niketan, which is for minor girls, houses two girls who are above 18 years of age. I have even found smartphones and cigarettes in their possession. These two senior girls must have harassed the 16-yearold knowing that she had murdered her mother.”
Confirming the presence of adults at the shelter home, Dehradun district probation officer (DPO) Meena Bisht said, “We have five girls aged above 18 but they stay in a separate room. They have been staying here for long and have
no place to go. They are all innocent and I have never got any harassment or ragging complaint.”
Meanwhile, a team of women’s rights commission carried out inspections at Nari Niketan and Balika Niketan on Friday and found that the deceased girl complained of high temperature many times in the past month.
Uttarakhand women rights commission chairperson Vijay Barthwal said, “We found that the girl was hospitalised a few days ago but we didn’t find any of her test reports. Her mother was HIV+ and the girl was having fever for the past one month, but even then she was not treated on a priority basis. A thorough probe is needed in the case.”
The Dehradun Nari Niketan, which shares the same campus with the Balika Niketan, has remained in the thick of controversy. In November 2015, two persons, including a Class IV contractual employee of the shelter home, were arrested for rape and abortion of a speech and hearing impaired inmate.