Unable to come to terms with the refusal of her marriage proposal by a friend, a 17-year-old girl on Saturday shot herself in the head with her father’s licensed revolver in east Delhi, police said.
The victim, a student of a private school in Noida, shot herself in the Skoda car of her father Virender Morya, an affluent property dealer, in Mayur Vihar phase-III on Saturday afternoon.
The family rushed her to the Metro Superspeciality Hospital in Noida, a satellite town of the national capital. Her condition was stated to be critical till late Saturday.
According to the police, the girl and her parents had arranged a meeting with Hitesh Laharia, with whom she was said to be in love, and his family in a city park near Mayur Vihar phase-III in the morning.
Police said the victim’s parents were trying to convince her that her marriage with Hitesh, a Class 10 dropout from the same school and now a motor mechanic, was not advisable due to the difference in the economic status of the two families.
The girl’s family was also reportedly pressurising the boy to reject her marriage proposal.
When Hitesh turned down her marriage proposal in the afternoon, she broke down and went sobbing to the car stationed outside the park.
”She drew out a revolver kept in the dash board of the car and shot herself in the head. After hearing the gunshot both families rushed to her and found her bleeding profusely. They rushed her to the hospital in the same car,” said a police official.
Hospital authorities informed the police.
Police detained Hitesh and his mother for questioning. Police were also interrogating the victim’s parents.
”We met in the morning. Virender Morya had asked my son to reject any marriage proposal from the girl. Both families were trying to make the children understand the situation. But she stood up, went and shot herself,” Hitesh’s mother told reporters.
The police said the two knew each other for more than two years and they stayed friends after Hitesh dropped out of school. The girl’s family lives in Sector-56 of Noida, while the boy stays with his parents in Khoda.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Delhi) Ajay Chaudhry said no case was registered yet and they were recording statements of the two families.
”A case would be registered only after initial investigations,” he said.
Asked about action taken against the victim’s father for keeping a loaded firearm in the glove compartment of his car, Chaudhry said: ”No action has been taken yet”.