India: Bullied for friendship with a Muslim, Hindu woman commits suicide

(Web Desk) – Social media harassment over friendship with a Muslim man led to the suicide of a Hindu woman in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Screenshots of a WhatsApp exchange with a friend, in which the 20-year-old stated that she ‘loved Muslims’, were shared widely on social media. 

Following continuous interrogation over her friendship with the man, police authorities say that five people from Hindu hardline groups also visited her house on Saturday to warn her parents.

BBC reported that the woman killed herself the same day.

While the police initially registered a suicide case, their investigation was later widened following reports regarding the role of social media in her death.

A senior police officer told the BBC that the woman had left a suicide note.

“She has mentioned that there was a photo of her with a man from another religious community. People started commenting about it and cast aspersions on her character,” he said adding that she killed herself after five persons went to her house and “complained to her mother that she was in love with a Muslim man”.

According to the BBC, her WhatsApp messages had been quickly shared in the district. In the messages, the woman is advised not to get “involved” with a man from another faith to which she replies: “But I love Muslims”.

Police authorities have also said that whoever has “criticised the woman, whether on Facebook or WhatsApp, would be arrested”. So far one arrest has been made.

“We believe it amounts to harassment due to which a young life has been lost. We are taking this case seriously because it wasn t her fault,” said the police official.

India has witnessed growing Hindu-Muslim tensions in recent years over what Hindu hardliners term “love jihad” – where they accuse Muslim men of participating in a “conspiracy to turn Hindu women from their religion by seducing them”.