The 16-year-old girl who was stabbed and bludgeoned in northwest Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy area was staying at her friend Neetu’s place in Shahbad Dairy for the past 15 days, said her mother who last spoke to her on Sunday afternoon.
Waiting at the Ambedkar Hospital to receive their daughter's body, the teen's parents said they were not aware if she had any acquaintance with Sahil, the accused. Her parents have demanded capital punishment against the youth who killed her.
According to the police, the victim, identified as Sakshi, was in a “relationship” with 20-year-old Sahil, and had a quarrel on Saturday. On Sunday, when the victim went shopping for a friend’s son’s birthday party when she was accosted by the accused in the densely populated neighbourhood, they said.
“My daughter had been staying with Neetu and her two children for the past 15 days,” said the mother, noting that latter’s husband was out of the station for work. “Just yesterday (Sunday) around 1:30 pm, I spoke to my daughter. She told me that she would return home once Neetu's husband was back and I was eagerly waiting for her. Little did I know that she would never return," she said, teary-eyed as confronted by media persons.
"We need justice for our daughter. She was brutally stabbed multiple times and her head was smashed repeatedly with a stone. We want the accused to be hanged to death," said her father Janak Raj. A labourer by profession, he said the police have assured them justice for their daughter and they believe in the system.
Recalling Sunday's incident, the victim's father noted that she was excited about organising the birthday party of her friend's child and had gone out shopping. "At the market, Sahil approached her and asked her to come with him. But when my daughter asked him why, he stabbed her multiple times and soon fell unconscious. He then smashed her head repeatedly with stones," he said.
The parents said that their daughter, who passed the class 10 exam this year never told them about Sahil. "It was when the police informed us that we got to know about Sahil. Our daughter never told about being harassed by anyone," her father said.
‘Came to know of their friendship 6 months ago’
Neetu, at whose home Sakshi had been staying for the past 15 days, told PTI, "At the market, she told me to head back home. She wanted to use the washroom and told me that she was going to our common friend's house but I didn't know what happened them. She never returned."
She also said that she was aware that they knew each other for more than three years but had no idea of any relationship.
"She told me about her friendship with Sahil some six months ago. I never heard her speak to him over the phone but I was aware that they were fighting for some time now and she was not talking to him. I never told her parents about it because I never saw anything happening in front of me," Neetu said.
The victim's friend Aarti too shared that despite being close to her, she never knew about Sahil.
"Had Sakshi informed her parents and filed a complaint against Sahil, her family could have saved her," she said.
A nearly 90-second video of the incident went viral oon social media showing the accused pinning the victim to a wall with one hand and stabbing her repeatedly in a busy bylane in northwest Delhi. He did not stop even when the girl slumped to the ground, kept jabbing the knife into her over 20 times, kicked and slammed a cement slab on her repeatedly.
Delhi Police said Sahil was arrested from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Delhi Police PRO Suman Nalwa told PTI that Sahil worked as a fridge and AC mechanic. He lived in a rented accommodation with his parents and three siblings in Shahbad Dairy area.
A case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at Shahbad Dairy police station on the complaint by the victim's father, the police added.
(With PTI inputs)
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