After being publicly humiliated by a Right-wing Hindu group for being in the company of a Muslim man, a 15-year-old girl committed suicide on Wednesday morning in Mulky in Dakshina Kannada, 40 km from Mangalore.

Worse, keeping in tune with the recent incidents in the coastal district, the police moved to arrest the Muslim man for rape and abetment of suicide, leaving alone the alleged local Bajrang Dal activists who are believed to be the co-abettors.

Abdul Salim, 27, owner of the bus in which the girl commuted to school for over five years, was arrested by the Mangalore police on charges of rape and abetment of suicide, following a complaint filed by the girl’s father.

Salim was placed under arrest on Wednesday, following the suicide, despite the girl and her friend, who were together on Tuesday, refusing to give a statement accusing Salim of sexual exploitation when they were taken to the Moodabidri police station by a woman sub-inspector, who was summoned by the alleged Bajrang Dal activists.

A case was registered under Section 110 of the IPC for “abetment, if person abetted does act with different intention from that of abettor”. To support their case, the police also forced Salim to write an apology on Tuesday night, alleged Abdul Razack, Salim’s brother.

Outside the police station on Tuesday night, after everyone was asked to go, the girl’s father, who was also summoned, publicly thrashed her, witnesses said. The girl committed suicide at her home the following morning.

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