CHENNAI: A fact-finding team probing the mysterious death of a 14-year-old domestic help, who was found hanging at her employer’s house in Washermenpet on March 12, demanded a CB-CID inquiry into the case on Tuesday.The alleged suicide victim, R Pranathi, had been working in constable Ulaganathan’s house at Washermenpet police quarters. On the evening of March 12, Ulaganathan and his wife Durgapriya informed Pranathi’s parents Rosayya and Mariamma that their daughter had committed suicide because of stomach pain. Pranathi was later buried at a cemetery in Kasimedu.Suspecting that the girl had been raped and murdered, the Ambedkar Chiruthaigal Iyyakam spearheaded a protest, demanding that the authorities exhume the body and conduct a second autopsy.Soon after the girl’s controversial death, Commissioner of Police T Rajendran ordered suspension of Ulaganathan and Durgapriya, who is also a constable, on charges of engaging a minor girl as domestic help. The body was later exhumed for a second autopsy.On Tuesday, a seven-member team claimed that there were several loopholes in the investigation conducted by the Washermenpet police and demanded that the case be handed over to the CB-CID. While the police adamantly maintained that it was a case of suicide, saying that there was neither any motive or clues or evidence for murder, the reasons cited for the girl’s suicide were also not strong enough, the team members said.Alleging that the police had adopted a lackadaisical attitude in the case because the girl hailed from the backward Arundathiar community, they said the investigating officers had tried to pin the blame on some nameless, faceless youth for the extreme step allegedly taken by the girl without making any efforts to trace his identity. Hence, the case must be transferred from the police to the CB-CID for a transparent probe, they added.
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