Nilagiri,October 01:Close on the heels of Supreme Court’s landmark decision to scrap section 377, a female student in Odisha who was allegedly in a same sex relationship, committed suicide in Nilagiri area of Balasore after her partner refused to marry her.
The deceased has been identified as Sasmita Dey, a Plus-III final year student of Nilagiri Women’s College. Sasmita had hung herself from a ceiling fan on September 28, informed police.
“Despite stringent rules and regulations in place, such incidents are coming to the fore. I have no idea about the incident so I can’t comment anything about it,” Principal of Nilagiri Women’s College, Manjushree Panda, said.
According to police, Sasmita was in a relationship with another girl student staying in a mess near the college hostel. A few days back, Sasmita had requested her partner to marry her. However, Sasmita took the extreme step after her request was turned down by her partner, informed police.
After recovering the hand-written notes and mobile phone of the deceased girl student, police have arrested her ‘partner’ and registered a case under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“From the hand-written notes it is evident that they were in a relationship. The day when Sasmita committed suicide she had called her partner multiple times. She took the extreme step after the other girl didn’t receive her call,” Inspector-in-charge of Nilagiri Police Station, Lalita Modi said.
No comments could be obtained from the arrested student.
Prasanta Patnaik