18-year-old students Jeet Biswas and Puja Mondal took their lives while connected via video call.

KOLKATA: An 18-year-old boy allegedly died by suicide while speaking to his girlfriend on a video call, following which the girl, too, allegedly took her own life. The two youngsters, Jeet Biswas and Puja Mondal, both around 18 and students of class 12 at Sendanga Chaturdaspalli High School, lived in the same neighbourhood in Ashoknagar, North 24 Parganas, and attended the same tuition classes. While neighbours said opposition to their relationship from family members could have led to the two taking the extreme step, the girl’s family claimed they learnt about her relationship with the boy only after the deaths.

Were in class 12 at same school

Police said Jeet was on a video call to Puja when he hanged himself from the ceiling. On watching him end his life, Puja, too, hanged herself from the ceiling, police said. It was when Puja’s family members did not receive any response from inside despite repeatedly calling her that they broke open the door to find her hanging. “The WhatsApp video call was still active on her mobile and on the screen, we saw the boy hanging. That was when we realised that the boy Puja was in love with had also died by suicide,” said Dipu, Puja’s elder brother. “A team from the Ashoknagar PS arrived at the spot and took the bodies of the two teenagers from their houses to hospital,” a senior Barasat District Police officer said.

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The youngsters’ classmates said the two had been in a relationship for several years. “They studied at the same school, attended tuition classes together and regularly travelled together,” a classmate said. A friend of Puja said, “ I had heard Jeet’s family was against their relationship but I cannot say if they were stressed over it. Everything appeared normal from outside.” But Puja’s mother, Phullareswari, claimed she had no inkling of her daughter’s relationship with Jeet. “My daughter would have appeared for her HS exams. When marriage was discussed, she would say she wanted to complete her studies first. We would not have objected to her marrying a boy of her choice. I cannot understand why she took such a step,” Phullareswari said. Dipu added that it was completely unexpected as Puja had been rather cheerful and had single-handedly organised bhaipota. Jeet’s family members declined to comment. The bodies were sent for a post-mortem at Barasat Medical College and Hospital on Friday. “We have registered separate cases of unnatural death,” an officer added.

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