12-yr-old school girl dies; parents allege foul play

The school authorities said the Class VI had died of jaundice on Sunday, but her father claimed that when he had reached hospital, he saw her clothes were torn and suspected that she was sexually assaulted, police said. The girl, a resident of Ghol village in Thane's Dahanu taluka, was studying in the ashram school in Dadhade village of Vikramgadh taluka of the district, they said. On Saturday, she had called her family and asked them for money for sweets.u00a0

However, on Sunday morning, her parents received a call from school informing them that their daughter was unwell. When her father rushed to the government hospital at Vikramgadh, he was told that his daughter had died, they said.

The deceased's father told reporters yesterday that he had observed a deep wound on her leg and her clothes were also torn, leading him to suspect that she was subjected to sexual harassment. A police official said as per the school superintendent, the girl had suffered from jaundice and she had died while being taken to the hospital on Sunday morning.

The school authorities also said the girl had vomited on Saturday and her condition deteriorated further on Sunday morning following which she was taken to the hospital.

The police official said based on the information provided by the school authorities, they had registered a case of accidental death on the same day and the body was sent for postmortem. Meanwhile, the government hospital said the exact cause of death could be ascertained only after receiving report of the postmortem examination. Investigation in the case was on, police said.
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