A higher secondary student and a youth,supposed to be her lover,committed suicide after clippings of her kissing a classmate was posted on the Internet and transmitted through MMS at Taliparamba in Kannur district. According to the police,the bodies of the 17-year-old girl and the 27-year-old electrician were found hanging from a tree near her house on Saturday. The classmate,who had recorded himself kissing the girl with his camera phone from their classroom,was arrested a few days back after the issue came to the fore. Police sources said the six-minute-long clip,arranged in three files,were taken over a period of time and were downloaded and edited at a local Internet café. The clippings might have got leaked out from the café with or without the connivance of the accused student. Although the classroom incident seemed to have happened a few months back,the clippings began circulating via MMS and appeared in the Internet only three weeks ago. After the visuals were identified as those of the girl and the classmate,the school authorities expelled them. The Parent Teachers Association filed a petition with the police,which arrested the student under Sections 66 E and 67 of the amended IT Act. The computer hard disk from the café was seized and sent to the cyber cell of the state police for further examination. Based on the result,the café owner and employees are likely to be arraigned as co-accused in the case. Police said the girl seemed to be in love with the youth,who ended his life along with her. The youth had recently done electrical wiring works at her newly-constructed house. It appears the girl earlier had a love affair with her classmate,whose mischief later damaged her reputation. Police sources said although the arrested classmate had denied the participation of other classmates in recording the kissing scenes,they were looking into all aspects. He said he had secretly fixed the mobile phone in the school bag for the operation. Police sources said the girl had deposed before them that the classmate cheated her. Sources in the cyber crime cell said incidents pertaining to misuse of camera-enabled mobile phones are on the rise in the state. Over last six months,the cyber police have registered 10 cases. With 11 cellular operators,Kerala tops in the country on mobile phone density. The state had last year banned use of mobile phones in schools. Last month,a person was arrested in Kottayam on charges of secretly placing a camera-enabled mobile phone in a toilet used by women staff of an office. In another incident,a government employee was suspended on charges of bad conduct after obscene visuals from his cellphone were leaked out.
