Minor girl’s death: Phone to be screened for deleted files

Kochi: Ernakulam rural police, probing the death of a 16-year-old girl who died by suicide purportedly after her Korean social media friend passed away, will examine her phone to recover deleted files. The phone has been sent to the regional forensic laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram for data mining.SP K S Sudarshan on Monday said that a detailed investigation by a seven-member special investigation team is progressing. "So far, we are not able to establish a relationship with any Korean friend. To conduct a detailed probe, the mobile phone used by the child was seized. In a preliminary examination, we found no leads. So, using advanced technology, the phone will be analysed to see if there are any deleted files and, if so, check them as well," said Sudarshan. The investigation so far found, prima facie, that the girl was interested in learning the Korean language and watching Korean cinema, he said. He added that there was no evidence to corroborate claims that the child accessed a page named Black Venom, as rumoured."There was a suicide note by the girl. The note indicated that she had a Korean friend who somehow died, and it (the suicide) was due to depression over it. But from the note, we were not able to establish who this person was," he added.He said that he did not know if she was cheated but it needed to be checked whether it was some hallucination or relationships linked to her Korean pop culture consumption. "We collected statements from several friends, relatives and others connected with the girl. But we did not get any strong lead from them," he said.She was found dead in a quarry pond in Chottanikkara on Jan 27.