Woman stabbed 30 times, crowd looks on

An alleged stalker stabbed a pair of scissors into a 21-year-old woman’s chest 30 times as her horrified younger cousin pleaded for help and mercy but a clutch of people looked on on a busy road in North Delhi’s Burari area on Tuesday morning.

The incident once again brought to focus the issue of women’s security, and people’s insensitivity and reluctance to help such victims. The incident later drew social media outrage as CCTV footage of the frenzied stabbing by 34-year-old Surender Singh, a retired Delhi police sub-inspector’s son, was aired by news channels.

An eyewitness said that the man kept stabbing the woman like a maniac long after she looked dead. He walked around the body and again stabbed her even as more people passed by. He also stabbed into her eyes and smothered her. A lone passerby moved to help, but soon backed off. The man had been stalking her for a few months and her family had lodged a complaint against him with the police.

After the murder, the stalker stood by the body for 10 minutes and also used his mobile phone to make a phone call to inform someone that “he had killed her.” He kicked the body a third time before walking to his motorbike, unchallenged and apparently unconcerned about being caught.

The victim, Karuna Kumar, taught at Novel Riches School. Her cousin, Neha, also teaches at the same school. Both were on way to work when they were waylaid at 9 am at Burari’s Labour Chowk. This comes a day after a woman in southwest Delhi was stabbed to death by a man who claimed to be her lover.

“We have sought a fact report from Delhi police commissioner over the incident. Whatever happened is very sad,” minister of state for home Affairs Kiren Rijiju told reporters. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau says 1,124 cases of stalking were reported last year, almost a fifth of all such incidents across India.

A three-minute CCTV footage shows that the attacker chassed the woman. She tried to ran away but fell down. The attacker stabbed her 30 times, sitting where she lay on the road. The victim’s cousin was shell-shocked and was undergoing treatment.

A local made a PCR call and the victim was rushed to a hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. Some locals then caught the accused, thrashed him, and handed him over to the police. The incident prompted the Centre to seek a report from Delhi Police.

“The woman was stabbed publicly in Burari area at 9 am by the accused, named Surender Singh, 34, who was known to her. No one came to her rescue,” deputy commissioner of police (North) Madhur Verma told reporters.

During interrogation, the accused said that he was infuriated with the woman after he noticed with her another man, the said police. The accused is going through divorce proceedings and has two kids. The couple got separated as he beat his wife, said the police.

The victim’s mother, Rama Beti, demanded that the accused be handed over to her. “No one helped my daughter; she died pleading for help,” she said.

In December last year, the two got introduced to each other. He fell in love with her and expressed his feelings but she refused his proposal and stopped meeting him, the police said, adding, he had been stalking her since then.

Meanwhile, relatives and locals staged a protest on Ring Road from 2 pm to 3 pm. Traffic remained effected for two hours.

Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia expressed shock over the gruesome incident while hitting out at the Delhi police, saying instead of “harassing” AAP legislators the force should focus on security of people. He also expressed concerns over the apathy of the people who did not come forward to save the girl.