E-Paper
20-yr-old woman stabbed to death by stalker in Chennai
Police said the victim was a second-year student studying a diploma course in Medical Laboratory Technology in a private college on the outskirts of Chennai
Chennai: A 20-year-old woman was stabbed to death by her stalker at the Tambaram railway station, over 30 km from Chennai on Thursday, police said. After stabbing her in the neck, the accused attempted to kill himself by slitting his throat but survived and is being treated at a local government hospital, they added.
Police said the victim was a second-year student studying a diploma course in Medical Laboratory Technology in a private college on the outskirts of Chennai. She was returning home after college and was waiting at the Tambaram railway station to go home to Chrompet. The accused, also in his 20s, who was stalking her stabbed her with a knife at the station. Eyewitnesses informed the police and stopped the accused from harming himself, police said.
The victim was taken in an ambulance to the Chromepet government hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. “She got acquainted with him two years ago during train journeys. They were not in the same college,” said a senior police officer not wishing to be named. “It’s a case of estranged love. The accused is in a stable condition. We have booked him for a murder case now and investigations are on going.”
Police said the accused is a native of Nagapattinam district and is an employee of a private manufacturing company in Maraimalai Nagar. The victim was avoiding him for a while, police said, adding that he tried to speak to her at the railway station when the two had a verbal spat.
Police have registered a case under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The accused is being treated at Chennai’s Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. The victim’s body has been sent for post mortem.
Similar instances at railway stations have shocked the public in the past in the city. In 2019, a 27-year-old man attacked a woman with a machete at Chennai’s Chetpet railway station leaving her with grievous injuries in a crowded platform. The man then jumped in front of a train to end his life. The two of them had known each other from their hometown in Erode district. In 2016, in another case at Chennai’s busy Nungambakkam railway station, a 24-year-old woman was murdered by her stalker for rejecting his advances. He had stalked her for a few months before the crime. The accused was arrested from his native in Tirunelveli district and the case was closed after he died by suicide.
