12-year-old boy ends life imitating suicide scene

Sohail was curious to know how people hung themselves, mum claims to have scolded him

Cinema’s influence on young minds can prove to be fatal at times. A 12-year-old class 5th student ended up taking his life at his home at Zafrabad in north-east Delhi by imitating an act of suicide, police said on Thursday. 

Sohail, a student of Sarvodaya school at Maujpur in north-east Delhi, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his home on Tuesday. Investigation revealed that Sohail was curious to know how people hanged themselves and what they felt while doing so. 

“A few days ago, Sohail had watched a suicide scene in a movie on television. His mother scolded him when he came up to her with some questions about the scene,” said the officer. She told police that while imitating the act of suicide he accidentally hanged himself.

“We received a call around 5 pm and rushed to the spot where the boy was found hanging,” said an officer.  The boy was rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital where he was declared brought dead. No suicide note was found from the spot. His father Mohammad Salim and mother Isha had gone to their relatives’ place at Seelampur on Tuesday afternoon to attend a funeral. 

Sohail was the only child of his parents. His body was handed over to family members on Wednesday afternoon after post-mortem. Police said his father had observed behavioural changes in his son after he watched the suicide scene.
After getting rebuked by his mother, Sohail started to keep things to himself, Salim told police. “But he didn’t realise that his son would do something like this,” said the officer.