Hate crime in Delhi: Ankit’s mother wants ‘strictest punishment’

On February 1, 2018, Ankit Saxena, a photographer, was stabbed to death in Raghubir Nagar by his girlfriend’s parents, brother, and maternal uncle

“I was present inside the court when my son’s murderers were pronounced guilty...They had no remorse on their face...I hope they get the strictest punishment.” Kamlesh Saxena watched her son being murdered before her eyes. Five years later, as she waits for sentencing in the case, the 50-year-old homemaker is toiling to make ends meet.

Ankit Saxena was his family’s main breadwinner, and after his death, the family received a compensation of ₹15 lakh from the Delhi government. “That was used up in the last few years. I am now dependent on the ₹2,500 I receive as widow pension, and ₹4,500 that I get from an NGO,” said his mother Kamlesh. (HT)

“I know the death sentence is given in rare cases, but I hope the court gives them the strictest punishment possible because of the way they killed my son,” she said.

On February 1, 2018, Ankit Saxena, a photographer, was stabbed to death in Raghubir Nagar by his girlfriend’s parents, brother, and maternal uncle because they disapproved of their relationship. On that fateful day, Kamlesh ran to the street where her son was being thrashed by his girlfriend’s family and tried to save him. In front of her eyes, his throat was slit by a knife. She, too, was assaulted.

Two days ago, a Delhi court pronounced the girl’s father Akbar Ali, her mother Shehnaz Begum, and her uncle Mohammad Salim guilty of murder. The court also convicted Begum under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for attacking Kamlesh while she was trying to protect her son.

The court observed that the prosecution had successfully proved that the motive behind Ankit’s murder was his relationship with the girl, and has now listed the matter for hearing arguments on sentencing on January 15.

“Every time I remember my son’s murder, I shiver. He died in front of me. No mother can ever forget such an incident. It’s a wound that will never heal and I will take it to my grave,” Kamlesh said on Monday.

In 2018, after Ankit was killed, tension gripped Raghubir Nagar, a lower middle-class colony in west Delhi, and several attempts were made by local leaders to further communalise the case of hate crime. Ankit’s father, Yashpal, and his son’s friends, however, made several public appeals against this.

Three years later, Yashpal —who ran a motor alarm shop — died after Covid-related complications. “I now live alone in our home in Raghubir Nagar. When my husband was alive, he pursued the case diligently. After Ankit’s death, my husband and I were there for each other, but now I am all alone. I have no one to fall back on,” said Kamlesh.

Ankit was his family’s main breadwinner, and after his death, the family received a compensation of ₹15 lakh from the Delhi government. “That was used up in the last few years. I am now dependent on the ₹2,500 I receive as widow pension, and ₹4,500 that I get from an NGO,” Kamlesh said.

Ankit and the girl lived in the same lane in Raghubir Nagar, and it was there that they fell in love a few years before their relationship met with such a brutal end.

At the time of the murder, she was 18.

A few months earlier, when her family learned of her relationship with Ankit, they moved to another house in the vicinity.

The girl, now 23. lives in a rented house in Noida and works at a private firm.

Her 18-year-old sister, who is in Class 11, told HT: “I lived with my Mama’s (maternal uncle) family in northwest Delhi. For the last six years, this is how we have been living... with relatives here and there. My aunt lives in Khyala (under which Raghubir Nagar falls) but I can’t stay there. It might not be safe for me.”

The girl’s brother, who was a minor at the time of the murder, was apprehended. He was released from a juvenile home a few years ago, and now lives with his 18-year-old sister at their uncle’s house.

A year after the murder, the girl said that her brother had seen some messages that she exchanged with Ankit.

Her family confronted her, beat her, and threatened to send her away. Her sister conveyed this to Ankit, and the two left their homes on February 1 evening in a bid to run away together.

She waited for Ankit at the Tagore Garden Metro station, but he never turned up. He was lying lifeless on a street in Raghubir Nagar, not far from where they had first met.