Class 8 girl dies while trying to enact TV serial scene

Kolkata: In a tragic incident, an 8-year-old girl from Bhatpara in North 24-Parganas died while enacting a scene that she had recently watched in a television serial.

A pall of gloom descended over the family members of the victim and the neighbours as the news of the little girl reached the neighbourhood. Her parents are still to recover the shock they had gone through. The victim, Puja Majumdar (8) was a class II student, who had picked up the habit of watching serials as she used to see her family members involved in a similar activity.

But her parents could never expect that this habit of watching television would be this fatal for the child.

It is suspected that she was trying to enact a scene of strangulation when a piece of cloth got stuck around her throat resulting in choking. Police are yet to confirm the exact reason that led to her death. They said the victim girl, a resident of Natunpally area of Bhatpara under Barrackpore sub-division, was alone inside a room when the incident took place. Some of the family members found that he was hanging against a window on Monday evening. She was immediately rushed to Bhatpara state general hospital where the doctors pronounced her brought dead. After being informed, police reached the house and started a detailed probe into the incident. The body was later sent for post-mortem.

According to the preliminary investigation, police have come to know that the child was rebuked by her mother on Sunday.

On Monday morning, she went to the house of one of her neighbours to watch television.

Since her return, she was inside a room and did not talk to the family members. People thought she might have been playing with her toys as she often does.

Her mother was away from home on Monday evening while her elder sister was studying in another room when the incident occurred.

Police are yet to investigate if the child committed suicide after being rebuked by her mother or it was the result of the enactment of a TV serial scene.

Police are also probing whether it is an accident that happened while playing with a piece of cloth. The family members of the victim told the police that she used to watch various crime related serials and often enacted them.