Girl, 13, hangs self days after accusing pandit of inappropriate touching

Feb 24, 2020 News

Days after alleging that a pandit had touched her inappropriately, a 13-year-old girl hanged herself in her parents’ Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) home.
The teen was discovered dead in her bedroom last Saturday.
A senior police official confirmed that they are in possession of a statement from the teen, in which she alleged that a religious leader had touched here in an inappropriate manner on a number of occasions.
The pandit has since been released on station bail. Despite the death of the alleged victim, police said that the investigation will continue.
Kaieteur News was informed that last Thursday, the teen, accompanied by her father, visited a Region Three police station with the claims against the pandit, who is in charge of a mandir in her community.
It is alleged that the religious leader and the girl’s father have been friends for some time. In her statement, the teen is said to have alleged that on occasions where her father was out, the pandit would visit the home and ‘touch’ her. He would allegedly also give her money.
Kaieteur News confirmed that police contacted officials from the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA). A source said that the officials conducted a “forensic interview” with the alleged victim.
However, the alleged victim reportedly refused to submit to a medical examination to ascertain whether she was sexually active.
Then on Saturday, the girl’s father discovered her dead in her bedroom. A postmortem will be carried out this week.
An attorney for the pandit yesterday denied that the teen had accused his client of touching her.
He said, instead, that the religious leader claims that he is accused of sending inappropriate texts to the alleged victim. According to the attorney, the police found no such text messages in his client’s phone.
However, police insist that the claim had nothing to do with texting, but with touching of the teen.

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