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An 11-year-old student of Holy Family School in Ulhasnagar committed suicide on Tuesday afternoon after her mother had read her diaries in which she had written about her friendship with a classmate.

Sayoni Chatterjee’s father Subhash Chatterjee (right) says he can’t believe that she would kill herself.

Enraged, her mother had gone to school on Tuesday morning to complain to the authorities. When she returned home at 1.30 pm, she found her daughter hanging from the ceiling fan in her room, still in her school uniform.

The police have registered a case of accidental death, saying they would record the statements of the parents after the funeral.

Sayoni Chatterjee, who studied in standard VI, was friendly with a boy in her class and the two used to regularly exchange letters.

Sayoni Chatterjee, 11, exchanged this last note with her classmate at  Holy Family Convent School on Monday morning.  She apologises to him about her mother finding out about their relationship. He writes back, “Now ur mother will tell to teacher.” She scribbles an emphatic ‘No.’ But later that morning Sayoni’s concerned mother landed at school demanding to see the principal which upset her greatly.

In a note she wrote to her classmate on Tuesday morning, at around the same time Shampa Chatterjee was waiting to meet the principal, Sayoni wrote a note to her classmate saying her mother had gone through her shelf the previous evening and found her diary.

“Having already confronted Sayoni, the mother came to meet the principal in the afternoon to discuss the matter,” a school official said on condition of anonymity. “On seeing her mother in school, Sayoni was visibly upset and tried persuading her to not talk to the principal.”

Since the principal, Sister Blossom, was busy at the time, Shampa met Sayoni’s class teacher, who promised to counsel both the children and asked Shampa to return the next morning. “The mother, however, insisted on meeting the principal right then and all this time, Sayoni, was standing by her side pleading with her mother to let the matter be,” said the official.

While the mother waited for the principal, Sayoni left school. And by the time, the mother got home, without having spoken to the principal, Sayoni was already dead.

In the letter to her classmate, Sayoni wrote, “Yesterday I had gone to my aunt’s house. My mother and sister were at home. I had gone with my father. When I was not there she (mother) opened my shelf and read my personal diary. In this diary every one and all things are wrote.”

When Mumbai Mirror contacted the school’s principal, she confirmed that the child’s mother had come to school with the problem for the first time. “As I was busy with HSC and SSC exams I asked her to come the next day.

In such cases, we counsel the children and then counsel the parents. In this case, however, even before we could act, this unfortunate incident took place. Probably the child was scared of being humiliated in class,” said Sister Blossom.

The principal added that they would counsel all students in light of this incident. “We will have to deal with the kids in a sensitive manner. We will devise a proper plan to deal with this issue,” she said.

The girl’s father, Subhash Chatterjee, who works with a chemical company in Rabale, said, “I can’t believe my daughter is no more. I have no reason why she killed herself. She was bright girl who was good at her studies,” he said.

Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty said that in such cases it’s important for parents to understand that their child is in distress.

“They need to make their child understand that they are with them. It should not be taken as a bad behaviour as then the parents will react with anger instead it should be taken as sad behaviour so that parents take an understanding approach toward the child.

In such cases it is best for the parents to seek help from a counsellor who can guide them so that the child can be counselled and hitting or getting angry at them would only make the matter worse.”