A youth blackmailing a 15-year-old girl was arrested from Sahkund in the district on Monday after the latter died on Sunday following self-immolation on November 26.

In her dying declaration to executive magistrate Teresa Murmu on November 30, the Class VIII student of Government Middle School, Sahkund, alleged that Guddu Sharma of Sahkund and Mohammad Mulo Khan of Kaswa-Khairi village had been harassing her whenever she stepped out to go to school or to the market. Guddu forcibly took her photograph on his cellphone and morphed it into a pornographic picture. Then, Guddu started blackmailing the girl, asking her to accompany them to Mumbai and marry him. The duo threatened to kill her father and brother if she refused to obey the order.

The girl’s father, who runs a litti-chokha kiosk at Sahkund, said: “On November 25, the accused duo threatened my daughter with dire consequences. She slipped into depression after returning from school. On November 26 evening, she tried to commit self-immolation. We admitted her to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital on November 27 with 90 per cent burn injuries. On December 1, she died. None of us knew about the issue till she narrated it to the magistrate.” The girl’s family also alleged that Guddu used to trap innocent village girls and sold them in Mumbai.

Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar said additional superintendent of police Harikishore Roy had been assigned to conduct probe into the case and nab Mulo.