Woman kills self over morphed images on social media, fiance follows suit

In a tragic turn of events, a 22-year-old woman, Radhika from Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu committed suicide after her morphed obscene pictures got circulated on social media. Hours after her suicide, Vignesh (22), her relative/fiancé killed himself. The original pictures were retrieved from her Facebook account and allegedly edited by one Premkumar.

Accused Premkumar, a dalit youth, surrendered to the police and two other men have been arrested in connection with the case. The deaths led to a massive protest in Kurvan Kuppam with the families of Radhikaa and Vignesh refusing to take the bodies after the post mortem.

According to reports, the police are clueless about the reason behind the crime. “Only an enquiry can establish the motive. Our priority is to ensure that caste tensions don’t flare up,” said a police officer.

Radhika was pursuing her Bachelors in Computer Application in Cuddalore and her fiancé was working as a delivery executive for an online retail store. Various news reports also claimed that Premkumar circulated the images over his enmity with Vignesh. According to a Tamil channel, over a month ago, Vignesh filed a case against Premkumar that he had abducted a minor girl with the intention to marry her. This reportedly led to Premkumar’s imprisonment and he was only recently let out on bail.

After the images were circulated, Radhika’s family deleted the photo from social media. Despite this, Radhika who was depressed over the issue, killed herself. Vignesh’s relatives also claimed that he was murdered by Premkumar and his associates after he questioned them.

Premkumar has been booked for abetment of suicide and under the Information Technology act for allegedly spreading obscene images.