A 16-year-old daughter of a farmer in drought-hit Latur district of Marathwada allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide as her debt-pressed parents could not buy her a monthly transport ‘bus pass’ to commute to college.
In her suicide note, the girl purportedly said she could no longer suffer the plight of her father and did not want to cast on him the additional burden of her marriage. Through her note, she also urged bank officials and money lenders not to harrass her father as he would return the dues after her sister’s marriage. The girl, Swati Vitthal Pitale, took the extreme step on October 14 when her father had gone to neighbouring Karnataka in search of work. She was a student of Class XI Mahatma Phule Junior College, Kingaon and resident of Jadhala village in Chakur tehsil. Police said they found a suicide note in which the girl left a message to bank officials and private money lenders from whom her father had borrowed saying: “Please do not bother my father. He i will return your money after my sister’s marriage.”