Seventeen-year-old Lavanya died on January 19, in Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu, 10 days after having attempted suicide. Since then, the question of what drove Lavanya to take her own life has become the topic of a political battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is currently governing Tamil Nadu.
Did Lavanya face harassment and abuse because she had refused to convert to Christianity, as BJP and its associates have alleged? Or was the Tamil Nadu police on the right track when it probed claims that Lavanya was being mistreated by her family?
