If only someone from the crowd had shown courage victim’s father

If only someone from the crowd had shown courage victim’s father

Video of the incident shows bystanders watching the assault and casually walking by; we want justice, says family; ‘Knew that Sahil was her friend but wasn’t aware of their relationship’: friend with whom the girl had gone shopping on Sunday.

As Sahil, 20, stabbed his 16-year-old female friend more than 20 times and bludgeoned her to death with a stone in north-west Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy area in full public glare on Sunday, bystanders watched the assault and casually walked past.

A purported video of the incident went viral on social media where the accused, Sahil, a fridge-AC repairing mechanic, could be seen repeatedly stabbing the girl and then attacking her with a stone. While no one tried to stop him, the assailant fled the spot before being arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr on Monday.

The incident comes close on the heels of the murder of a 21-year-old BA student of Greater Noida’s Shiv Nadar University who was shot dead by her classmate after which he returned to his hostel room and shot himself.

‘Kept on stabbing’

“I saw the CCTV footage. He kept on stabbing her and no one tried to stop him. If only somebody had shown a bit of courage, my daughter would have been alive and with us. We want justice,” the victim’s 40-year-old father, who works as a labourer, told The Hindu.

A senior police officer, citing the preliminary post-mortem report, said apart from multiple stab injuries, the victim had sustained skull fractures. The officer said the detailed post-mortem report was yet to come.

According to the victim’s father as well as the CCTV footage timestamp, the incident took place around 8.45 p.m. However, the police got the information only around 9.35 p.m. from a local informer who alerted the beat staff. An officer said the body remained on the street for nearly an hour since no PCR call was made. Following a complaint by the victim’s father, the police have filed an FIR under IPC Section 302 and investigation is under way.

Her friend, a mother of two children with whom she had gone shopping on Sunday evening, said it was her son’s birthday and they had gone to buy things for the party. “We left for the market in the evening. While returning home, she wanted to visit another friend. Since she needed to freshen up, she first went towards a public toilet. That is when Sahil accosted her,” she said. Her friend said she knew that Sahil was a friend of the victim but wasn’t aware of their relationship.

At the Shahbad Dairy cremation ground, the victim’s mother said she had never heard of Sahil. “My daughter was staying at a friend’s place for the last 15 days since the latter’s husband was away for a few days,” her mother said, adding that she last spoke to her daughter on Sunday around 1.30 p.m. “She told me she’ll return once her friend’s husband is back, but here I am sitting in front of her pyre,” the mother said.

‘Hard-working family’

At Sahil’s rented accommodation in Jain Colony in Rohini, the landlord, Ramphool, said Sahil and his family — his parents and three sisters — had been living there for two years now. “He and the other family members never indulged in any argument with anybody. They have left the house. The family said their son has been falsely implicated. We don’t know where they have gone,” he said. According to another neighbour, Sahil’s family was very hard-working. “It’s quite unfortunate and extremely difficult to imagine that he could have done this. He deserves the strictest punishment,” said Rekha, 39, Sahil’s neighbour.