Driven to despair by unrequited love, a 23-year-old model (name withheld to spare her the stigma) attempted suicide by consuming poison at her Alipore residence on Tuesday.

The youth who allegedly jilted her has been arrested.

Nanda Dulal Pal, officer-in-charge of Alipore police station, said the girl was involved with a 28-year-old model for the past three years.

According to police, on Tuesday afternoon, the youth told the girl that he could not marry her, as his parents had fixed his marriage somewhere else. The marriage was to be solemnised later this week.

In a state of shock, the girl locked herself in her room and consumed poison. Her parents grew suspicious and raised an alarm on finding the door closed for a long time.

Neighbours rushed in and broke open the door, to find her lying unconscious on the bed, blood oozing from her mouth. She was then rushed to SSKM Hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.

“Following a complaint lodged by the girl from her hospital bed, we have arrested the youth on charges of rape, abetment to suicide and cheating. He will be produced in Alipore court on Thursday,” Pal said.

Investigation revealed that the girl had met the boy, a resident of Mirza Ghalib Street, at a modelling school in 2003. They soon became friends.

The girl’s mother told Metro on Wednesday evening that the boy had all along promised to marry her daughter.

“When he called her to say he was getting married, my daughter was shocked. She went to his house to meet his father and after coming back home she kept crying... But I could never imagine that she would take such a drastic step,” she said.

An officer of Alipore police station termed it a case of cheating. “The boy had been avoiding the girl for the past couple of months. He apparently met her last month and said that his father had fixed his marriage but promised to go against his father’s wishes and elope with her if such a situation arose,” he added.

The city’s modelling circuit was shocked to hear of the attempted suicide. Her modelling career had taken off this year with her dusky look drawing attention.

“I have always wanted to be a model and I dream of making it big soon,” she had told Metro a few months back.

“She has great prospects in the industry. We hope she recovers and returns to the ramp soon,” said the principal of a modelling academy where she had trained. Late on Wednesday, she promised friends she would be back to pursue her ramp dream, soon.