The girl, who should have helped police unravel the mystery behind the recent missing of her and two other girls, died on Monday evening after battling for life for a week. The victim Arya K Suresh, 16, was found injured on the railway track in Palakkad on last Monday, while her two close friends S Raji, 16 and Athira R Nair, 17, were found dead on the same track a few meters away.

They were class XII students of a government higher secondary school at Konni in Pathanamthitta district. They left their homes on July 9 for daily class, but did not reach school. Despite massive hunt, the girls remained elusive until two of them were found dead and another injured at the railway track. Probe has revealed that the girls fell from the train while returning from Bangalore.

Police had been waiting to take the statement of Arya, who could have helped them solve the mystery behind the missing case, which has generated much curiosity in the state. Arya had been put on life support system since last Monday, but her health deteriorated further leading to the death.

Read: Kerala deaths a mystery: 2 dead friends, third critical, confused cops

Police have ruled out sexual or physical assault after the three were medically examined, and are investigating whether the girls jumped off a moving train as part of a suicide pact. Post-mortem reports indicate all the three had received head injuries from jumping off a moving train.

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Police have questioned around 100 people so far, including friends of the girl traced through social media, but have failed to get any leads on why they left home. While officials said their findings indicated the three tried to kill themselves in a suicide pact, their families have said there was no reason for the girls to do so.

Neighbours said the families did not have any financial troubles. Both Athira and Arya’s fathers work in the Gulf. Arya’s father had given her a tablet after she did well in her Class X exams. While Raji’s father no longer lives with the family, her mother works with a private firm. The school authorities also said the three were good students, regular at classes, and had shown no signs of stress or family trouble.

As per what police have determined so far, on July 9, instead of going to school, the girls mortaged some gold in Pathanamthitta and used the money to buy train tickets to Delhi from Chengannur, 24 km away. However, they appear to have boarded the wrong train and got off at Mavelikkara, which is 13 km from Chengannur.

At Mavelikkara, they used a mobile phone of a trader to call up the home of one of the girls, to find out if anybody had realised they were missing. They returned to Chengannur to get their train tickets cancelled and money refunded, but failed. So they went to Ernakulam by bus and then boarded a train for Bangalore.

On July 11, they appear to have returned to Ernakulam, and later gone to Bangalore again. On July 13, they were presumably returning from Bangalore to Ernakulam when they apparently jumped off the train. The families of the girls had approached police on the evening of July 9 after they had contacted the trader on the number from which the girls had called, and realised something was amiss.

Police said they acted promptly, alerting the railway police and railway stations outside the state as well. Police added that the girls appeared to have been constantly on the move.

Train tickets recovered from their bags have shown they visited Bangalore, 600 km away from Pathanamthitta, at least twice. Entry tickets for the Lal Bagh Botanical Garden were recovered from their bags, and police later confirmed they had visited the park from the CCTV at the entrance gates of the garden. There was no one else with the girls at the time.

The police have found that the girls had also sold a tablet owned by one of the victims in Bangalore.

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