Malviya Nagar murder: A busy park with guards, a birthday party, and murder

A 22-year-old woman was killed on Friday afternoon when the park was full of visitors, according to the guards.

In the busy Malviya Nagar area of south Delhi, surrounded by residential colonies, commercial establishments, shops, offices, and a college, the 46-acre Vijay Mandal Park, Begumpur, is generally bustling with a large crowd at lunchtime.

The Malviya Nagar police station is just about 100 metres from the park. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

Managed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the park has 13 guards who work in three shifts along with a supervisor — all of whom are ex-servicemen. The large park has three entry gates, each manned by a guard, while a fourth guard is usually patrolling inside. The Malviya Nagar police station is just about 100 metres from the park. The park has three main entrances from the sides of Sarvodaya Enclave, Begumpur Village, and Aurobindo College, and four smaller pedestrian gates.

When the 22-year-old woman, Nargis, was killed on Friday afternoon, the park was full of visitors, according to the guards.

The one guard patrolling inside was not near the incident spot. The incident was first reported by the DDA supervisor, Harinder, who was sitting in the room at the entry gate when a middle-aged woman alerted him about something happening inside. “I rushed inside the park along with the guard. When we reached the bench that the woman had pointed to, we saw the body with a large wound on the head and a lot of blood around it. Her phone and purse were lying next to the body on the bench along with the iron rod. I had expected a minor fight and thought someone was injured. We rushed to the spot with the intent to save her but were shocked to see her in a pool of blood. There was so much blood that we were not sure if she was even alive,” said Harinder, the park supervisor.

He said there was a group of 20 college students celebrating a birthday nearby. He asked them if they saw anything but they had not. The supervisor also said that he had not seen anyone around the body or fleeing from the spot.

“I called the local police who reached within five minutes. When I called the police, they asked me to also call 112 for the local PCR which I did,” said Harinder.

“Between 12.08pm and 12.09pm, the police received two calls, one from a security personnel and another from a passerby. We reached the spot in five minutes as it was 100m away from the station, where we found the woman’s body lying in a pool of blood,” said a local policeman, requesting anonymity.

According to residents, the park is a busy community area, frequented by residents of Shivalik and Navjeevan Apartments, MMTC Colony, and Adhchini, along with students from Delhi University’s Aurobindo College.

“This is a large park but unlike the nearby Panchsheel Park, it is not secluded. The police station is also nearby, so there are hardly any security concerns usually. People like to visit often and it is usually crowded with college students and residents. This was a crime of personal rage,” said Neeraj Chopra, general secretary of Sutr Residents’ Welfare Association, Malviya Nagar.

Locals said that Friday’s incident may not have an eyewitness who saw the actual crime, despite the park being crowded at the time of the incident.

“I was at my tea stall outside the park, serving customers. All of a sudden, there was a commotion and I started asking people about what happened. They said a girl has gotten murdered,” said Manish, a tea seller outside the park.