THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police investigating the suicide pact of three schoolgirls in the southern Indian state of Kerala have arrested two of their male classmates and charged them with gang rape and abetting suicide.
Police said the two Class 12 students, Shahnavas and Saufer of Vocational Higher Secondary School in Ambalappuzha in central Kerala, had admitted to having sexually exploited the girls during a polygraph test here recently.
Both students hailing from well-to-do middleclass families are aged 19. The lie detection test was conducted after an autopsy report had earlier confirmed that the deceased Julie Varghese, Anila Babu and Manju, all aged 17, had had sexual intercourse.
The suicide note and the entries in their personal diaries also had references to “those guys” who captured their “nasty images” on their mobile gadgets.
Police believe they took the extreme step because the boys blackmailed them to continue exploitation.
The girls, all from lower middleclass families, were found in their classroom dead after consuming poison on Nov. 17 in their school uniform.
Police initially wrote it off as a case of suicide under emotional stress from failed love and poor academic performance. They later reopened the case owing to public pressure.
Based on the autopsy report and the polygraph test the special investigation team headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police P. Rajagopal arrested the students Wednesday evening. Two other classmates, who were subjected to the lie detection test, were let off.
