14-year-old Schoolgirl left Chilling Note Describing Final Moments
Kolkatta: “Give me a nice funeral. A NAICE one,” Krittika Paul had written in the suicide note found next to her in the school washroom where she killed herself on Friday. Respecting her last wishes, her family, relatives and friends gave the 14-year-old an emotional send-off at a crematorium in Baruipur on Saturday evening.
A few family members and very close friends of the family accompanied Krittika’s distraught father to the crematorium in Kirtankhola in Baruipur on the southern fringes of the city at 3.30pm.
“We wanted to keep her last rites a very private affair, and so the choice of this crematorium. The Pauls’ ancestral house is in Baruipur. Krittika’s maternal uncle also lives here, ” said a close family friend. “We all have very fond memories of Krittika. I can’t believe she is no more. The reality is yet to sink in. We had high hopes she would do well in life as she was both intelligent and compassionate,” said a family member.
Earlier in the afternoon, Krittika’s body was handed over to the family at SSKM hospital after post mortem. The initial report confirmed her injuries were ante mortem (before death) and death may have been caused due to lack of oxygen. “She had wrapped her face with a polythene bag and tucked its edge inside her shirt, possibly to suffocate herself. There were multiple slash injuries on her wrist but those were unsure cuts and non-lethal in nature,” a police officer said.
But what shook even the most hardened of police officers was her three-page suicide note in which she graphically described her suffering leading to her death. Written in a hand that increasingly became unsteady as she bled and suffocated, she wrote about the pain as blood dripped off her wrists and how breathing was getting difficult due to lack of oxygen. Police believe she wrote this page in the washroom while the first two in steady hand were written earlier.
Her mobile, laptop may carry evidence: Cops
In the first two pages, written in lucid English without a scratch mark, Krittika wrote that she had spent several sleepless days and would find sleep at last. She also mentioned that she had a death wish since she was in Class I.
Back at her school, teachers spent a tense day with the investigating authorities recording their statements. “We will be speaking to the parents soon. We believe her mobile phone and laptop can carry important evidence,” said an officer. Experts are also trying to analyse the suicide note to find out what prompted her to opt for such a violent way to die.
“She was an avid reader and read lots of books. She spent very little time on the Internet. But given the manner in which she killed herself, did she get the idea from one of several crime web series?” wondered an officer.
In her last note, Krittika took pains to let everyone know that no one was responsible for her actions. “My mind is messy. What I write is not chronological. I hold myself and only myself responsible. I do not want police to bombard random people with random questions. Anyway, I was long battling this thought. Some people had the arrogance to think that I cannot kill myself,” she is believed to have written, claimed sources.
Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti, chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Children’s Rights, who visited G D Birla Centre for Education on Saturday, said she had learnt that the school had organised a felicitation ceremony for class toppers on Friday and the prizewinners, including Class X topper Krittika, were in a jovial mood after the ceremony.
Some representatives of the school’s guardians’ forum have demanded a meeting with school authorities to discuss the incident even though they backed the school’s responses in these trying times.