Nearly a fortnight ago, Pradeep had allegedly threatened the teenager that she won’t survive to celebrate her seventeenth birthday.
As it turned out, he kept his word and attacked her on Monday — a day before her birthday. A few hours later, she succumbed to injuries.
According to an eyewitness, the girl had complained to her father about being stalked by the accused for the past few months. Next, her father confronted Pradeep in a nearby vegetable market and slapped him. The accused had then, in full public view, challenged to kill her before her birthday.
‘No complaints lodged’
“He did what he had threatened to do. We all thought he was making empty threats. Being a concerned neighbour, we all had asked the girl’s father to file a police complaint. But he did not want his daughter to get involved in all this and thought that things had settled down,” said the eyewitness.
On the day of the incident, the eyewitness said, Pradeep was waiting for her outside the society gate. When he saw her walking towards her house, he attacked her with the axe and ran away. The girl was bleeding profusely and screamed for help. Residents then informed the police about the incident. But by the time, the police arrived, she had fainted.
Concerns over security
“She was rushed to a hospital by a security guard in an autorickshaw. The police collected the murder weapon [axe] from the spot and CCTV footage of the entire incident. After the incident, residents have raised concerns over the security in the area,” said the eyewitness.
The girl’s father works as a housekeeping staff in an Embassy while her mother works as a maid. The victim was the eldest child and has two sisters and one brother.
“I am concerned over the security of the victim’s two younger sisters. The victim was a brilliant student of Class XI and recently her father had brought her a mobile phone for online classes. Her father is numb while her mother is inconsolable,” said a distant relative.
