Five teenage girls allegedly committed suicide today by swallowing poison, while another one was admitted to a local hospital in critical condition in the Jamboni area close to the West Bengal-Jharkhand border, police said.
The bodies of Namita Nayak, Baby Nayak, Saraswati Nayak, Soma Nayak and Palan Nayak, all aged between 13 and 19 years, were found in a field in the remote Oro village close to the Jharkhand border under the limits of Jamboni police station, a senior district police officer said.
"Six girls were spotted by local villagers chatting on the banks of the village pond this afternoon. Soon after dusk, they were found lying unconscious on the field. Five were declared by the doctors as dead on arrival and the condition of Puja Nayak, who has been admitted to Jhargram district hospital, is stated to be critical," said West Midnapore district Superintendent of Police Bharati Ghosh.
"Preliminary investigations indicate that the girls had consumed poison resulting to their death. Three of them belong to a family. We are probing the incident and our officers have rushed to the village. The nature of poison and other relevant details will be known only after the post-mortem," Ghosh said.
