Parental past sends teen to depression and death

Shocked to learn that her father was actually her foster father, a teenaged girl immolated herself at Kamalanagar here on Monday afternoon.

Sixteen-year-old Shwetha’s lifelong impression of her father figure had come crashing down. The discovery of the truth behind her real parentage had overwhelmed her, sending her into deep depression that eventually claimed her life. 

The Class X student left no one in doubt as her death note clearly referred to her parentage and how devastated she was by the truth. Her biological father Ramesh, she had learnt, had deserted the family after her birth. 

Shwetha was born to Sunitha and Ramesh in 1996. Ramesh deserted the family soon after.

Sunitha then married Suresh, who was also from the same village and had lost his wife after she gave birth to a boy. Sunitha, Shwetha, Suresh and his son then moved to Bangalore as a family. The couple had another daughter, Sahana, who was in the same school as Shwetha. With Suresh working as a plumber, the family eked out a living. The couple took great care not to disclose any of the past with the children. 

All that changed a few months ago, when the family went to their village to attend the funeral of Sunitha’s father. Apparently, some villagers and relatives told Shwetha that Suresh was not her father and that her mother had not married Suresh either.

A depressed Shwetha withdrew herself into a shell. And, on Monday, she returned home early after completing a unit test at her school. Alone at home, she doused herself with kerosene and set herself on fire. By the time neighbours rushed in, she was dead. A case has been registered at Basaveshwara Nagar Police Station.