A 16-year-old girl was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in a crowded public passageway in India's capital, igniting renewed concern about women's safety in the nation and violence perpetrated by men.
Multiple individuals can be seen strolling close by as the assailant repeatedly hits the victim in the video, which lasted more than a minute and was recorded on surveillance camera, reports CNN.
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Only one man is seen intervening, attempting to pull the attacker off the victim before immediately retreating, it said.
The victim's body was discovered Sunday evening in the Shahbad Dairy area of the northern Delhi city of Rohini, where the incident had occurred.
Indian police said on Monday afternoon that they had arrested a male suspect called Sahil in connection with the murder.
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Sahil, a mechanic, was arrested in the adjacent state of Uttar Pradesh, according to Ravi Kumar Singh, deputy police commissioner for Outer Delhi.
Deependra Pathak, special commissioner of Police in Delhi, told the Indian news station Times Now that the first probe indicated to a "crime of passion."
“I saw my daughter was lying on the ground, with her face to the ground,” the girl’s father, Janak Raj, told CNN. “Her organs had come out and her head had been smashed in. She lay there lifeless. There was no point in taking her to hospital.”
“It angers me to know that no one helped my daughter,” he added. If they had helped her, she would have been alive today. I also heard that the bystanders were busy filming videos of the incident. Even if they had screamed, it would have helped my daughter.”
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Raj said his daughter assisted the family's finances through tutoring. “I don’t feel alive today,” he said through tears. “I miss her so much. She was such a good child. What do I do?”
The death is the latest in a long line of rapes and killings in India, raising concerns about whether enough is being done to protect women and punish attackers, the report added.
“A minor girl is brutally murdered openly in Delhi,” Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote on Twitter. “This is very sad and unfortunate. The criminals have become fearless, and there is no fear of the police.”
“The safety of the people of Delhi is of paramount importance,” he added.
Swati Maliwal, chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, told ANI that she had never seen anything like it.
“Delhi has become extremely unsafe for women and girls,” she added.
For a long time, India has struggled to confront gender violence. According to a 2018 study of women's issues specialists, the country is the most hazardous location in the world to be a woman.
The frequency of crimes against women appears to be on the rise in India as well. Crimes against women were 20% higher in 2020 than in 2013, according to statistics from India's National Crime Records Bureau, said the report.