Even as the jilted lover who brutally attacked a 26-year-old woman in Muktsar was arrested on Tuesday, the victim is battling for life at Chandigarh’s PGI. Doctors had to amputate her right arm from below the elbow and were operating on the left in the hope of saving it.
Police said the attacker, Joginder Singh, was arrested from Srainaga village, 20 km from Muktsar, on Tuesday for stalking the woman, scaling the wall of her house when she was alone and brutally attacking her with an agricultural implement called ‘kappa’.
Such was the brutality that the woman’s right hand was hanging by the skin when she was rushed to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research on Monday. “Her right arm had to be amputated from below the elbow as it was beyond restructuring. There are two fractures on the left with gashes. We are not sure to what extent the left arm will function once the wounds heal,” a doctor who operated on the victim at PGI said.
Before the operation, the woman, a B Ed student, hoped doctors could save at least one of her hands. She put up a brave face despite suffering cuts on her forehead and neck and narrated the ordeal. “It was around 10.30am on Monday. I was alone at home. There were few people in the neighbourhood as most of them had gone to the nearby gurdwara to attend a health camp. I had locked the main gate and was ironing clothes when I saw him roaming in the verandah. I was shocked as he was armed and had entered the house by jumping the wall,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Before the operation, the woman, a B Ed student, hoped doctors could save at least one of her hands. She put up a brave face despite suffering cuts on her forehead and neck and narrated the ordeal. “It was around 10.30am on Monday. I was alone at home. There were few people in the neighbourhood as most of them had gone to the nearby gurdwara to attend a health camp. I had locked the main gate and was ironing clothes when I saw him roaming in the verandah. I was shocked as he was armed and had entered the house by jumping the wall,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“He tried to force himself on me. When I shouted and pushed him away, he tried to silence me. I raised the alarm and he started attacking me with the kappa,” she said. He tried to hit her on the neck and head but she shielded herself with her right arm that took the brunt. “I kept screaming for help. There was blood everywhere. I could see flesh flying in the air. It was horrific,” she said.
When he saw people approaching on hearing her cries, the attacker fled, abandoning the weapon in the room. The woman’s father, a labourer, was working in the lane when he heard her cries. “By the time I reached, people were rushing her to hospital,” the father said.
In his complaint , he said, “Joginder had been harassing my daughter and forcing her to marry him. My daughter got engaged last month. That’s why he tried her to kill her.”
Villagers said the accused worked at a toll plaza but was sacked as he was a drug addict and had been booked for sexually abusing a nine-year-old girl.
“He has sexually abused three women but he has relatives in the police so he got away. He used to boast that no one can harm him,” the victim said.
“He should go through this pain and suffering, too. Please meri koi sunwaai karwaao (give me justice),” she said. A case was registered under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and 320 (grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.