The recent death of a 16-year-old girl, who was studying at Dechencholing Higher Secondary School (DHSS) in class X lead to much controversy on social media with a viral facebook post by an anonymous user saying the deceased teen was three months pregnant at the time of her death.
It alleged that her aunt’s husband, 54, impregnated the deceased girl. The allegation also stated that the girl was sexually abused and harassed by the uncle, which was why she did not do well in her mid-term exams this year.
However, the forensic report by the RBP shows that the deceased girl was still a virgin, there was no evidence of sexual assault and she did not have any external injury or bruise on the body. The girl as alleged was also not pregnant.
The 16-year-old deceased, who was from Trongsa, and used to live with her paternal aunt and the aunt’s family at Royal Body Guard (RBG) camp in Thimphu. She was staying with them since her childhood.
The deceased girl lost her mother a year ago, while her father, who is partially disabled, is said to be an alcoholic, which is why the aunt brought him from their village. He is being taken care by deceased’s cousin brother who resides in Paro.
It was learnt that the deceased do not have any biological siblings but had stepsiblings with whom she did not have contact ever since she came to live in Thimphu.
The Bhutanese talked to the family that the girl stayed with over the viral allegations.
The family has denied the allegations made online.
Ugyen Dorji, the deceased’s cousin brother (aunt’s son) shared that whatever has happened was unexpected and shocking because the deceased was doing fine with her studies and had no other issues.
He said, “My mother brought her from the village when she was in class two, and since then she was part of our family. Everyone in the camp knows about our relationship with her. As far as I know, she never had any personal issues that could have led her to this.”
He shared that what they can do for now is to conduct her last rituals properly, as that is only the way they can help.
“The allegations against my father is something unbelievable, and something that is not true at all. We took care of her as our own. Whoever has posted on social media must have their own reason to do, but the truth speaks as the medical report did not show anything as claimed by some people,” he added.
People were informed with the wrong information, he said, adding that people need to be given the right information.
The Bhutanese also enquired with the deceased girl’s school to enquire if the school or the counselor there had noted any complaints from the girl or any unnatural behavior.
The Principal of DHSS, Tashi Gyeltshen, said that they keep track of all the students through their class teachers, and the deceased girl, in particular, did not have any record of exhibiting bad behavior or of being placed under counseling programs.
He said, “She was doing good academically, and this year, she stood 8th from her class in the mid-term exams. She was more focused on her studies. She was a well behaving student over all.”
“The news of her sudden demise was quite shocking,” he added.
She was found dead on 14 August when one of the students of Nima Higher secondary School first witnessed the body of the deceased in the Wangchu, after which the incident was reported to the police. A police rescue team then fished out the body from Changjiji Bridge at around 1:30 pm on the same day.
There have been no eye witnesses coming forward to substantiate the allegations made in the viral post.
The police have booked the case under death by drowning.
If you can ask if her aunt was home on the day of her suicide? Or days before that!