A teenager who had been allegedly gang-raped while returning home from school in a South 24-Parganas village three days ago couldn’t take the trauma and killed herself at home on Sunday, her family told police.

Before she gulped down a bottle of pesticide, the girl had reported the assault on her to the police. One of the three accused has been arrested while the other two are absconding, an officer at Kultali police station said.

The alleged gang rape occurred on Friday afternoon after the girl was abducted while walking back home through a desolate stretch of road leading to her village. She was taken to a paddy field and allegedly assaulted by the three men.

The girl’s family members had started looking for her when she didn’t return home from school at her usual time. They didn’t find her until after dusk. “She was still unconscious in the paddy field,” the officer said.

A medical examination at the local health care centre apparently confirmed rape.

According to the girl’s parents, she hardly interacted with her family members since being brought home late on Friday. “She was depressed and didn’t step out of the house. The only thing she told her family was that she feared being unable to interact with her friends and neighbours. She had even started refusing food,” the officer said, quoting her parents.

On Sunday, the girl’s family found her groaning and a bottle of pesticide lying beside her. She was taken to the local health care centre but could not be revived.

There was pesticide in the house because the girl’s father is a farmer.

Although unconnected to this incident, the area where the girl was assaulted is notorious for human trafficking. Many minor girls from that belt have been sexually assaulted and trafficked to other states.

“A minor who is assaulted invariably thinks that her life has changed forever. She stops going to school for fear of being identified and isolated. When there is social ostracism, a survivor is repeatedly reminded of what she went through,” said Prabir Mishra, who works for an NGO in South 24-Parganas that helps rehabilitate trafficking survivors. “Sometimes, the girl does not receive support even from her parents. They, directly or indirectly, make it known to the girl that she is responsible for what happened to her.”

According to Mishra, a girl traumatised by a sexual assault on her could feel even more isolated if shifted to another school. “News of an incident of rape in a rural area can haunt the girl or woman to the point that she becomes desperate,” he said.

A member of the investigation team said that the girl’s body bore injuries that might have resulted from her resisting the attackers. “She possibly tried to fight off the men even as she was being assaulted.”

The arrested suspect, identified as Moinuddin Mollah, has been booked for gang rape and abetment to suicide. Moinuddin is from an area close to where the girl lived. “The teenager did not know him. It appears that he and the other suspects were aware of the route that the girl would take while returning home and had planned to abduct her last Friday,” the police said.