Kerala
Teenage girls brought back to Kochi from Goa

Renu Ramanath

They are surviving members a family, which entered into a suicide pact at Goa

KOCHI: Ashwini (15) and Amritha (13), the two surviving members of the Thripunithura-based family which entered into a suicide pact in Goa, were brought back to Kochi on Thursday.

They were brought back through the efforts of District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish and the voluntary organisation Seva Bharathi based in Aluva.

They were sent to the Juvenile Home and will be produced before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court on Friday. The girls, who survived the suicide bid in which their mother Beena, brother Akash (22) and another young man, Pradeep Kumar (24) had died, were under the care of Apna Ghar, a voluntary organisation for girl children based in Goa. But, the stay at the voluntary organisation was harsh, according to them.

Mathrushakthi, the local wing of Seva Bharathi, had taken the initiative to bring them back with the support of District Collector. Armed with the Collector's letter to the Goan District Collector Nikhil Kumar, K.N. Menon and Sajith Pai of Mathrushakthi went to Goa.

The five-member team including the family of four and Pradeep Kumar had left Thripunithura on January 29 to Goa after travelling to Tirupati, Mumbai and Delhi.

All the five including the two girls, had consumed poison.

The District Collector has instructed the Education Deputy Director to conduct special examinations in mathematics for Ashwini, who had expressed the wish to continue her education.
(The Hindu - 10/03/06, Friday)