Malda, Jan. 7: Eighteen months after the body of an MA student was fished out of the Mahananda, the CID in a report to the chief judicial magistrate here said the 20-year-old had committed suicide out of depression.

Jhumpa Khatun, a student of Burdwan University, had gone missing on June 13, 2007 from her Hyderpur residence in Old Malda. Two days later, her body was found floating in the river. She was last seen in Rathbari on June 13, her elder brother had said in a police complaint.

The CID report that was submitted on Monday also absolved Mansur Rehman and Ataur Rehman, the students of Kalipur High School in Chanchol. The duo, currently on a bail, had spent three months in jail custody after police arrested them in connection with Jhumpa’s death.

The boys were arrested after they had reportedly called Jhumpa’s father on his cellphone and threatened him soon after she went missing.

Following the arrest, when family members of the boys raised a hue and cry, the CID was called to investigate the case.

The CID collected the girl’s personal effects like her diaries and exercise books. Armed with the video recording of the body, the post-mortem and forensic reports, it began the probe. The sleuths also checked call records with the BSNL between the two arrested boys and Jhumpa.

“We concluded that there was no foul play in the death. The post-mortem report said the woman had died because of drowning which indicated three possibilities — that she drowned accidentally, she committed suicide and someone had forcefully drowned her,” said Ghulam Kibria, the CID inspector leading the investigation. The forensic reports ruled out the third possibility.

While going through Jhumpa’s diaries, the investigators found that she had written that she did not want to live any longer. “We also found out that she was suffering from an abdominal tumour and her family would have been hard put to bear the cost of the treatment. In fact, the day she went missing she had gone to the district hospital,” Kibria said.