Teen Hangs Self After Her Family Beats Muslim Boyfriend To Death: Report

A 19-year-old college student in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh hanged herself after her family fatally beat her boyfriend, according to reports.

The teen, identified as Bachelor of Science student Tannu Saini, died by suicide Wednesday in Saharanpur district's Islampur locality, the Times of India reported.

Her autopsy report mentioned death due to hanging, according to the outlet.

Saini's apparent suicide occurred hours after her 20-year-old boyfriend and classmate, Zia-Ur-Rehman, was allegedly called to her home and beaten by her family.

"They brutally thrashed him and left him outside the house," Zia's father, Ayub Ahmad, was quoted as saying.

Zia died at the hospital in the city of Dehradun following the alleged beating.

A probe into the deaths has been launched, Saharanpur senior police superintendent Vipin Tada said.

Police have yet to receive any complaints from the deceased couple's families, they claimed. No first information report has been filed.

Appropriate action would be taken after Zia's postmortem report arrives, according to police.

Saini and Zia were reportedly in an inter-faith relationship. The former's religion was not disclosed, but the latter was Muslim.

It was unclear if their difference in religion was a factor in the incidents.

Local markets remained shut after news of the deaths spread out of fear of communal unrest erupting due to the couple's different faiths.

A police force has been deployed, according to Tada.

Violence against interfaith couples in India has increased in recent years, according to rights groups.

These acts are perpetrated by hardline Hindu nationalists, the Associated Press reported.

Uttar Pradesh, which has a government dominated by figures belonging to India's ruling political party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, passed its so-called "Love Jihad Law" in 2020.

The law officially named the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020, banned unlawful religious conversions by force, fraudulent means or marriage. It also required religious conversions for marriage in the state to be approved by a district magistrate.

Uttar Pradesh enacted the law in response to what right-wing Hindu groups called "love jihad," an Islamophobic term denoting a baseless conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of seeking to make Hindu women fall in love with them with the sole purpose of converting them to Islam, the BBC reported.

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.