'Mentally unwell' woman hangs self from police communication tower in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur

Representational Image

A woman allegedly suffering from mental health issues died by suicide by hanging herself from a police communication tower in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district on Tuesday morning, even as cops and onlookers tried to dissuade her, officials said.

The incident occurred in front of the Kunkuri police station, they said, adding that as per the woman's family, she had earlier also tried to end her life and was watching suicide-related videos over the past few days.

Before climbing the tower, the 22-year-old woman, identified as Nilima Lakra, called 'Dial 112', the state police emergency response service.

Upon receiving information, a police team reached the spot, and later the Home Guard, District Disaster Response Force and the local Nagar Panchayat personnel also arrived there, officials said.

The police personnel and others tried to counsel her and bring her down, but she hung herself despite that, using her scarf, they said, without elaborating on the reason behind the extreme step.

"The body has been brought down from the tower and sent for post-mortem," Jashpur Additional Superintendent of Police Rakesh Patanwar said.

As per preliminary information, Lakra, a resident of Dhumadand village in the same area, was suffering from a mental illness and had earlier also attempted suicide, the official said.

"Her mother told police that she had been watching videos on how to commit suicide on the phone for the last few days," he said.

Police were questioning her family members to gather more details, and further investigation was underway, he added.

The deceased's mother, Pushpa Lakra, told reporters that her daughter left home on Monday while talking on the phone and later informed the family that she was in Kunkuri, located 6 km from Dhumadand, but did not return.

"This morning, we got information about the incident. She was mentally unwell. She had been watching videos on her phone about suicide by hanging," she said.

Police stopped people gathered at the spot from making videos and reels of the incident.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.