CHENNAI: A 14-year-old-girl hanged herself at her Washermenpet house on Sunday after a couple, her neighbours, allegedly filmed her drinking beer and later threatened to post the pictures on the internet .

The couple, Rafiq and Kalaiarasi alias Rani of Parthasarathy Street, were arrested on charges of abetting the girl’s suicide.

Police said Vennila (name changed), a Class 9 student of a private school in New Washermenpet, often visited the couple’s house after her mother Selvi left for work. The two families are tenants in the same building. Selvi, who is employed at a hotel in Royapettah, preferred leaving her daughter in the couple’s house.

Recently, police said, there was a fight between the two families and Selvi and Rani abused each other. However, the girl continued to visit Rani’s house. On one occasion, the couple who were drinking liquor allegedly forced the girl to consume beer. They later shot pictures of her drinking beer on their cellphone camera.

The girl, unaware of this, continued to visit them, police said. On Saturday night, when another quarrel broke out between the two families, the couple told the girl they had shot pictures of her drinking beer. “Showing her the pictures, they told her to warn her mother against bothering them. They threatened to reveal the pictures to other tenants and also upload them on the internet,” said an investigating officer.

Apparently shocked over this, the girl took up the matter with her mother. Her mother consoled her, but she remained inconsolable. On Sunday morning, when Selvi left for the hotel where she worked, Vennila locked up herself inside a room and hanged herself using a dupatta.

Her mother, who came home in the afternoon, found the doors closed. After a search in the neighbourhood proved futile, she returned and found that the door had been closed from inside. When repeated knocks didn’t elicit a response, she peeped through the window and found her daughter hanging. The body was sent to the Stanley Medical College and Hospital for autopsy and later handed over to her mother.

Based on a complaint from Selvi, police interrogated the couple, arrested them and seized their cellphones. They have been remanded in judicial custody.

“The girl feared that this would bring bad name to her mother, as she is the elder daughter of the family,” said Washermenpet inspector K Devaraj.