In a horrific incident, a third-year engineering student was brutally murdered in broad daylight by an unidentified assailant in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur on Sunday, causing a widespread uproar.
According to the police, the student was walking on Kakani Road when a youth approached her on his bike. He asked her to get on the bike, to which she refused after which a heated argument took place between the two and suddenly she was stabbed in the stomach and neck six times by the youth who later fled the scene.
“The assailant then took out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly on the neck and the stomach and fled the scene. The locals rushed to the spot and immediately removed the profusely bleeding girl to hospital,” an official said.
After receiving the information, the victim was taken to Guntur Government Hospital where she was declared brought dead by the doctors, police said.
Guntur Urban Superintendent of Police Arif Hafeez, who visited the hospital, said police registered a case and launched a hunt for the assailant with four teams to nab the culprit while efforts were on to unlock her mobile phone for possible clues.
The ghastly crime on Independence Day sparked outrage. State Home Minister M Sucharita rushed to the Government General Hospital, where the girl’s body was taken, and expressed shock over the incident.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the victim. He directed the officials concerned to take care of her family.
TDP general secretary and MLC Nara Lokesh deplored that the dalit student’s murder took place around the time when the CM, in his Independence Day address, was waxing eloquent about women safety under his rule.
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Jana Sena chief K Pawan Kalyan said the murder of engineering student was 'sorrowful.' A series of such attacks on girl students and women reflected the government’s 'failure' in taking effective steps to curb them.
“This government lacks sincerity in preventing attacks on women. There is no point making shallow laws,” Kalyan said, referring to the flawed Disha Bill that the Centre rejected.
The Home Minister told reporters at the GGH that police have gathered some clues about the assailant and hope he would be nabbed soon.
“Despite having tough laws… how to punish such psychopaths? Only capital punishment seems appropriate for such monsters,” the Home Minister remarked.
She said the victim’s parents and friends were also being questioned for possible clues. Lokesh, meanwhile, demanded that the culprit be brought to book immediately.
“The Jagan government has been trumpeting a lot about the (non-existent) Disha Act. In the past two and a half years, in not one case of atrocities against women has any justice been done,” the MLC said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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