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NEW DELHI: A 19-year-old girl was chased and stabbed by a youth more than half a dozen times inside a crowded market in south Delhi’s Bhogal near Nizamuddin on Friday evening. She was being stalked by the youth, Mohammad Shakeel (22), for some time.

The youth was caught and thrashed by passersby and handed over to police. Locals claimed that he even attacked them when they tried to stop him from fleeing.

Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 7.30pm when the girl was walking towards Mathura Road through the weekly market at Bhogal. Shakeel sneaked up behind her and pushed her to the ground. He then started stabbing her in the abdomen, chest and neck.

The shopkeepers and shoppers rushed to her help, but Shakeel threatened them with his knife. When he tried to flee, the locals chased and caught him. He was disarmed and beaten up by them. The girl was rushed in an autorickshaw to AIIMS trauma centre where doctors declared her dead.

The girl used to work as a nanny in Bhogal. Her parents stay in Tughlaqabad, while she lived in a rented house at Sarai Kale Khan with her elder brother. Shakeel, a mason, had met her while staying with his sister at Sarai Kale Khan and had been stalking her since.

The girl’s family said he had threatened to harm her if she refused his advances. When the girl’s brother, an autorickshaw driver, intervened and asked Shakeel to stay away, he threatened to kill him as well. He stopped pursuing the girl when she threatened to lodge a complaint with police.

DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said that a case of murder (IPC 302) has been registered against Shakeel. “The youth is being treatment for his injuries sustained after getting thrashed by people at the market. We are waiting for him to recover after which he will be arrested,” he added.

The victim’s body will be handed over to her family after an autopsy on Saturday. Shakeel had bought the knife a few hours before he attacked the girl.



In Video: Stalker stabs woman to death in Delhi’s Bhogal