Guwahati, July 11: The family of Liter Bagra, a girl from Arunachal Pradesh who died on June 14 in a house near Beltola Tiniali here, today appealed for an investigation into her death, suspecting foul play.

The 16-year-old girl from Bagra (Higi) village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, had appeared for her class X CBSE examination from Axel Public School at Lokhra.

Liter and her mother Alaka Doley Bagra used to live in a rented house at Khanapara.

After her exams were over, Liter had to stay with her classmate and friend Sharon Shinglong at her rented house on Bishnu Rabha Path, near Beltola Tiniali, belonging to Rajen Gupta.

While Sharon's elder brother Peter was present at the house, her mother had gone to visit their hometown, Haflong.

On June 14, Liter's father Toli Bagra, an employee of the Arunachal Pradesh health department at Likabali in West Siang district, spoke to her on Sharon's phone around 11am about her journey home that day.

Liter had broken her phone three days back and hence she was using her friend's phone to stay in touch with her father and mother, who was at Likabali. Her father called again around 4pm to give her details about the bus ticket. But the phone went unanswered.

When he called a few minutes later, a woman, later known to be the landlord's wife, picked up the phone and informed him that his daughter had committed suicide by hanging herself an hour back.

A nephew of Bagra, who lives in Guwahati, visited the house, saw Liter's body and suspected foul play.

The next day, around 5.30am, Bagra, his brother Tapak, a constable with Arunachal Pradesh police, and a few other relatives, reached Basistha police station where Liter's body was being kept. They could not see her body as senior officers were absent.

The body was sent for post-mortem at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital at 9.30am. Tapak went to the hospital where he identified the body. He noticed a bruise mark above the wrist on her right hand and absence of her undergarment. Tapak suspected foul play and voiced his opinions to the investigating officer, Dipamoni Dihingia.

He passed this information to Toli who filed an FIR at Basistha police station. An initial post-mortem report mentioned the bruise mark on the wrist and another mark around her neck.

Dihingia said, "We got a call about a suicide at the house of Rajen Gupta and reached there around 4.30pm. We found the girl lying dead on a bed and the room was filled with onlookers. We also found a suicide note.

According to their statements, Sharon and her brother, Peter, on seeing Liter hanging from the ceiling fan, broke the locked door of the bedroom, brought down the girl and tried to revive her. We brought the body to the police station and sent it for post-mortem the next day. The viscera and the suicide note have been sent to the forensic laboratory and the final report is awaited. We filed a case under Section 302 on June 21 based on her parents' allegation of murder. Further investigations will be done after the final report arrives."

A fact-finding team of Arunachal Women's Welfare Society visited the house on Monday where Liter committed suicide and spoke to the landlord before visiting Basistha police station to get an update on the investigation.

The team also met Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and urged him to issue orders for a proper investigation.