Tamil Nadu suicide: Madras high court hands over case to CBI – Hindustan Times

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Monday transferred the case of a 17-year-old girl’s death by suicide in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur from the local police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on her father’s petition amid allegations of forced conversion.

Justice G R Swaminathan ordered the transfer to the federal agency days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a 45-second video in which the girl is purportedly heard saying warden of a Christian residential school where she studied asked her parents to convert to Christianity.

Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) member Muthuvel filmed the purported video on January 17 while the girl was battling for her life at a hospital. Muthuvel’s mobile phone has been sent to a forensic lab in Chennai for examination on the court’s directions.

The BJP sought a CBI probe into the matter and, last week, the party’s national president, JP Nadda, constituted a committee to look into the girl’s suicide.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Congregation, which runs the 160-year-old school in Thanjavur, has denied the charge of conversion, saying they provide secular education for all as per the Indian Constitution.

BJP leaders welcomed the high court’s order. “The fight shall continue till justice is delivered,” tweeted BJP leader BL Santosh.

On Sunday, BJP state chief K Annamalai, who led a delegation that visited the girl’s family, called Tamil Nadu’s intelligence department incompetent and questioned whether it gave “a true briefing to the chief minister” about the case.

A National Commission for Protection of Child Rights team is also in Thanjavur in connection with the case.

A judicial magistrate recorded the girl’s statement three days before she died on January 19. In the statement, a copy of which HT has seen, the girl, a resident of Ariyalur district, blamed her 74-year-old hostel warden for torturing her, hitting her, and scolding her to do work and audit hostel accounts.

Thanjavur district’s education officer looked into the matter and noted in a report that no complaint of any religious conversion was made against the girl’s school for a decade. The report said more Hindu students studied at the school than Christians and Muslims.

The court took into account media interviews given by school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi that a departmental inquiry has found no evidence of religious conversion to conclude that when a “high ranking” minister himself has taken a stand, investigation of the case cannot continue with the Tamil Nadu police.

“I therefore direct the Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi to assign an officer to take over the investigation from the State Police,” the order said.

The court also pointed out to the name of the place where the school is situated–Michealpatti. “Obviously it could not have been the original name,” the order said adding that someone can examine how it acquired the name Michaelpatti. “Therefore, there is nothing inherently improbable in the allegation that there was an attempt at conversion. It could be true or false. The matter called for investigation and not outright rejection,” the court said.