Teen kills self over father's alcoholism

Deeply upset over his father's alcoholism, a 17-year-old student, who was preparing for his NEET examination, reportedly committed suicide on Wednesday by hanging himself from a railway bridge in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

A suicide note written by Dinesh, who had come to his grand mother's house in Tirunelveli to prepare for his May 6 exam, says that his father's constant drinking habit caused him tremendous stress that he took the extreme step of killing himself.

Dinesh, who hailed from Sankarankovil in Tirunelveli district, had lost his mother at a young age and was being raised by his step-mother and father. Police said Madasamy, Dinesh's father, is a daily wage labourer, and he used to come home drunk every day which irked the teenager.

Police said the young boy took the extreme step after talking to his father over phone during which he was in an inebriated condition. In the suicide note, Dinesh categorically told his father not to perform his last rites.

“You should not drink after I die. You should not light my pyre because you drink. You don't shave your head. To put it openly, you don't do my last rites. Mani Appa (uncle) only should only perform my last rites and this is my wish. Only then, my soul will rest in peace,” Dinesh wrote in the letter that was recovered by the police.

Appeal to CM

He also appealed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisami to shut down alcohol outlets at least now. “If he doesn't, my spirit will come back to do it,” he said in the suicide note.

Dinesh's suicide has ignited the prohibition debate in Tamil Nadu once again with PMK, the party that spearheaded a campaign to declare the state alcohol-free, asking the government to “at least learn from the young student's death.”

Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said the government was committed to implementing prohibition but said people should also give up drinking on their own.

Prohibition was the major poll plank of major political parties in 2016 Assembly elections with every party, including ruling AIADMK, promising to implement prohibition in the state.