School girl hacked to death

TRICHY: A 14-year-old school girl was hacked to death in broad daylight in Varakuppai village in Trichy on Saturday morning by a young man whose love she spurned. An hour after he murdered her, the youth committed suicide.
R Ranjitha (14) of Varakuppai near Lalgudi was the younger daughter of the couple, Ravichandran and Tamilselvi. She was studying in the ninth standard in a government school in Pullampadi.As her father died a few years ago in an accident, Ranjitha lived with her mother in her maternal grandfather Azhagappan's house in the same village.
Police said that Ranjitha was proceeding to the bus stop to go to school, when Ravichandran (22), son of Perumal, a former president of the village, followed her with a billhook. He stabbed her on the neck and head several times and Ranjitha collapsed in a pool of blood. This was witnessed by Manoharan, a tailor in the village who later reported the incident to the police. Meanwhile, Ravichandran fled the scene.
On hearing the noise, villagers rushed to the spot and took Ranjitha to the government hospital in Lalgudi where she was given first aid. From there she was taken to a private hospital in Trichy, but she succumbed to her injuries on the way.
Further investigations revealed that the families of Ranjitha and Ravichandran belonged to the same caste and they resided on the same street in the village. As Ranjitha did not reciprocate his feelings for her, he got frustrated and took the extreme step.
While the Kallakudi police were on their way to arrest him, they got the news of Ravichandran having committed suicide at his house in Varakuppai by hanging himself. Police said he might have decided to end his life on hearing the news about Ranjitha's death in the hospital. The police had initially suspected that a previous enmity between the families might have triggered the killing.