Telangana Engg student sets herself ablaze over fear of Coronavirus infection
By Newsmeter Network Published on 1 April 2020 3:57 PM GMT
Hyderabad: With the entire world holding its breath as Corona virus takes everyone's life hostage, the fear of having contracted the virus has forced an engineering student in Rajanna Siricilla district of Telangana to end her life. The victim allegedly set herself ablaze at her home on Tuesday evening. Dasari Sravanthi, 20, reportedly left a suicide note detailing the reasons for her suicide.
According to the police, the victim hailed from Jillella village and was studying engineering fourth year at a private college in the neighboring Siddipet district. While her father Balaiah had migrated to Muscat a decade ago, her mother, Laxmi, brother Vamsi, and grandfather Rajaiah were staying at home.
Sravanthi returned home recently after the lockdown was announced by the government. On Tuesday, Laxmi and her son had gone to the fields, while Rajaiah had gone to the market. When they returned, they found flames coming from the house. The neighbors immediately alerted the fire department and the police.
But Sravanthi succumbed even as the fire tenders doused the fire. The police sealed the area and found a suicide note purportedly written by the victim. The note said she girl was suffering from symptoms of cold and fever and feared that she was infected with the virus. It also said she could have got infected from fellow passengers while travelling to her college on a bus. She asked Vamsi to take care of her parents. While the police suspect that she took the extreme step out of fear of being infected with the virus, her mother expressed suspicions over her death.
Laxmi told the police that Sravanthi had not spoken to her about being sick or showing symptoms since she came home from college and raised questions about other reasons that might have forced her to take this step. The police registered a case of suspicious death and handed over the body to the family after postmortem. Further, the suicide note and Sravanthi's belongings were sent for forensic examination.
