MUMBAI: A 15-year-old girl leaving for school on Monday morning was gagged and stabbed in the staircase of her building in Virar by a youth known to her and her family. The girl said that about a fortnight ago she went to the Manvelpada police chowkie to complain against the youth, who was stalking her, but was turned away (the police have denied this).

Meena (name changed; a Class 10 student) was on her way home from school two weeks ago when she was stalked. She slapped the youth, who is above 20, and he tripped over and fell flat on his face in front of his friends, requiring stitches on the forehead. Monday’s attack on Meena could have been in revenge. The youth is at large.

The girl’s building is at Nana Nani Park, Virar (East). Around 6.40am, when Meena reached the first floor on her way down the stairs from her third-floor flat, the youth, who was waiting there, gagged her with a handkerchief and hit her on the right hand, said the police. As she tried to fight him off, he stabbed her in the abdomen and fled, leaving behind the knife and the handkerchief. Meena’s screams for help alerted her parents and neighbours, who took her to hospital. Authorities at Sanjeevani hospital said the stab wound is roughly three inches deep, but Meena is out of danger.

Tempers flared in the locality as news of the attack spread; locals complained of growing cases of eve-teasing of school and college girls.

Meena has given a description of her attacker to the police. The youth, along with his parents and brother, stayed in the same neighbourhood till two years ago. Meena’s father, a driver, said that once during Holi, the youth threw balloons at them and beat him up. After the incident, he and his family were forced to leave the locality. Nevertheless, the youth continued to harass Meena.

Under the Bombay Police Act and the CrPC, it is the police’s duty to prevent the commission of a cognisable offence. Abdication of duty can make the cops concerned liable for departmental action.