Mystery shrouded the suicide committed by a Chennai college student in Vyasarpadi on Friday evening. While her grandfather attributed it to mental distress because of the ’sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils’, her parents said she took the extreme step because of severe stomach cramps.

As news of the suicide spread, some Tamil nationalist groups arrived to pay respects to the girl’s body.

Sources said Gowthami alias Rasathi (18), a first year student at a city college, was at her grandfather Selvaraj’s house in C Kalyanapuram I street in Vyasarpadi when she hanged herself. Selvaraj said that the girl had been keenly tracking the news coverage of State-wide protests on the Lankan issue over the past week.

On Friday evening, Gowthami reportedly locked herself in a room and hanged herself with her dupatta, according to Selvaraj, who found her body and alerted police and other relatives.

Vyasarpadi inspector L Shankar rushed to the spot and lowered the body, which was moved to the Government Hospital for post-mortem. Shankar said that no suicide note was found at the scene.

Her friend Jane told Express that Gowthami had been saddened by the recent developments in the State over the situation in Sri Lanka and  its global implications.

However, inspector Shankar said that Ravikumar, the girl’s father, a government employee, had stated in a complaint that Gowthami ended her life as she was suffering from acute stomach cramps. “Based on his complaint, we questioned her mother Devi and her brother Vignesh separately. They confirmed Ravikumar’s statement, saying Gowthami suffered from stomach pain once in a while. Therefore, we registered the complaint as reported by her father,” said Shankar.

Meanwhile, leaders of pro-Tamil groups hailed Gowthami for being one more Tamil youth who gave up her life for the cause of Lankan Tamils. However, they hoped it was the last life lost for the cause and called for meaningful protests instead. – Express News Service