Faster response by public could have saved Gurgaon stabbing victim

Closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of the stabbing of a 34-year-old woman at Gurgaon’s

Closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of the stabbing of a 34-year-old woman at Gurgaon’s MG Road metro station on Monday morning shows a few commuters tried to intervene but were threatened by the accused.

Accused Jitender Kumar, 26, was sent to judicial custody on Tuesday. (Parveen Kumar/HT File)

The footage shows public response was slow, giving the 26-year-old stalker sufficient time to stab the victim, Pinki Devi, nearly 30 times for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Had they responded faster, Devi might have been saved.

Accused Jitender Kumar is seen stalking Devi from gate number 2 of the station. He took out a knife from his left pocket and started stabbing Devi in the stomach while holding her shoulder. Within moments, both fell on the floor but Kumar kept on assaulting Devi with the knife without noticing where he was hitting.

Within 12 seconds, three passersby intervened and hit Kumar with their bags but he did not budge. One of the passersby started shouting for help but other people just watched. Some left spot unconcerned.

The accused sat on the victim and kept on stabbing and no one came forward to rescue Devi, who hails from Shillong and worked in a beauty parlour at Rohini in Delhi.

After about one minute of uninterrupted stabbing, two men are seen attacking Kumar with a stick and a table fan on his head. After that other passersby started thrashing the accused till the Central Industrial Security Force personnel nabbed him.

The incident, however, was unlike the stabbing of a Delhi woman on September 20 where no one came to her rescue and onlookers just passed by.

Dr Deepak Mathur, who conducted a postmortem on Devi, said she had 30 injuries caused by a sharp-edged weapon. Kumar was on Tuesday sent to judicial custody. He has reportedly told the police that he and Devi were in a relationship but she had been ignoring him for the past few months.

Dr Brahmdeep Sindhu, senior psychiatrist at Gurgaon civil hospital, said immediate response in such situations is usually slow.

“Even the victim takes time to decide whether to fight back or take flight. When in crowd, onlookers usually act as they feel safer. But majority of people think several factors before reacting,” he said.