Karuna’s brutal murder on a busy street in Burari may have left her father Naresh Kumar emotionally battered and bruised, but it hasn’t made him lose his sense of right and wrong.
His resolve was on display when residents of his north Delhi locality went about showing intimate pictures of the accused killer, Surender Singh, with several other women. The crowd was trying to show Surender as a man who “changes girlfriends as frequently as he changes his clothes”, but Mr. Kumar tries to stop them.
“Have some heart for the women in those pictures. They are married and have children. Their reputation will be maligned,” Mr. Kumar tells the youth.
Mr. Kumar’s concerns for the other women arise from the way the media has discussed his daughter’s murder.
“Many newspapers and TV channels showed pictures of Karuna with Surender and tried to downplay the murder. How does their friendship [that apparently ended last year] reduce the gruesomeness of the murder,” questions the angry father.
Will keep her safe
Mr. Kumar believes this was done at the behest of Surender’s father, a retired Delhi Police sub-inspector.
He refuses to believe news reports of Surender’s father claiming he had disowned his son some years ago.
Karuna’s brother Manish says the family now fears retaliation from Surender’s family once the media attention shifts. That, he says, has made the family determined to ferociously protect Karuna’s cousin sister, who was a witness to the brutal murder.
The woman was accompanying Karuna to school when the attack took place.
She had tried to dial the police, but was pushed away by the killer, causing her phone to fall.
“She is in a state of shock and has not eaten anything since the incident. She has been suffering from fever and is too scared to go to work,” says Manish.
The woman fears that she will be attacked too.
“Some friends of Surender in Burari had been updating him about Karuna’s movements for months. She believes they will target her now to eliminate the witness,” says another uncle, Vinay.
Mother blames herself
Meanwhile, Karuna’s mother, Rama, who has barely spoken or eaten anything since the murder, only keeps repeating that she erred by “compromising” with Surender’s parents after they begged for forgiveness on behalf of their son around five months ago.
In May, Surender had accosted Karuna near the GTB Nagar metro station and tried to attack her with a beer bottle. “I should have pressed for my daughter to go ahead with a FIR. I never believed Surender could turn out to be a killer. I am responsible for my daughter’s death,” says Rama.
For justice
Karuna’s father says his daughter had wanted to become a nurse and had been pestering him to arrange her admission into a nursing course. “I had promised to save money for her course by next year. That money I will use for the legal battle to ensure justice for my daughter,” says Mr. Kumar.
She is in a state of shock and has not eaten anything since the incident. She believes Surender’s friends will target her now to eliminate the witness
