Times of India 
 
  
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Mar 18: In a shocking incident, a 21-year-old dental student has hanged himself in Kannur in north Kerala while his helpless girlfriend watched it live on webcam from New Delhi.

V S Karthik, a third year BDS student, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his room in Pariyaram Medical College on Friday.

"He was an introvert and used to spend most of his time in the room. On Friday, he wasn't out till the evening which was when his friends grew suspicious and alerted the authorities," said Taliparambu DSP Abdul Kareem.

"When the door was broken, we saw him hanging from the fan. A closer look at the room revealed that his webcam was pointing towards the body," Kareem said.

On investigation, it came to light that Karthik was chatting with a girl, apparently his girlfriend, just before he took his life. Police said the girl was a management student in New Delhi and was related to him.

The computer of Karthik, who was cremated on Sunday, had shut down automatically around 7.45 pm on Thursday making police believe that the tragic incident must have happened in the evening.

The family was opposed to their relationship. "While chatting, Karthik told her that he was going to commit suicide. She panicked and begged him not to do so. But he was unrelenting. As the girl watched desperately, he turned the camera towards the ceiling fan and hung from it," the DSP said. "I have never come across a more gruesome incident in my career," he added.

Police, however, are treading cautiously in the case. "We examined about 15 minutes of their conversation and found there was no sort of provocation in it. The poor girl must be in a state of shock and the first responsibility must be to see that she doesn’t slip into paranoia," a police officer said.

Karthik is from an affluent family and his father is a PWD employee. "We have seized the computer and it will be sent for forensic examination," said SI C Uthamadas, who is investigating the case. Kerala, with a population of just 3.5 crore, has the highest suicide rate in India. According to figures released by an NGO, 25 suicides were reported per one lakh population in 2005.