A 20-year-old man has been arrested in Delhi in connection with the barbaric public murder of a 16-year-old girl, which was documented on CCTV.
On Sunday, a teen was brutally stabbed and beaten to death in a public alley in the capital of India, prompting renewed indignation over the safety of women in the country and violence perpetuated by men.
Girl in India Brutally Stabbed on Street
A video of the incident, which lasted more than a minute and was captured by a security camera, shows multiple individuals strolling nearby as the assailant strikes the victim repeatedly.
Only one man is depicted intervening, attempting to drag the attacker off the victim before fleeing swiftly, as per CNN. An unidentified victim's body was discovered Sunday evening in the Shahbad Dairy area of the northern Delhi district of Rohini, where the incident occurred.
Monday afternoon, Indian police announced the apprehension of Sahil, a male suspect in conjunction with the murder. Sahil, a mechanic, was arrested in Bulandshahr, a city in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh.
Ravi Kumar Singh, the Deputy Police Commissioner for Outer Delhi, informed reporters.
Deependra Pathak, the Special Commissioner of Police in Delhi, told the Indian news channel Times Now that the preliminary investigation pointed to a so-called "crime of passion."
The incident is the most recent in a long series of murders and rapes that have sparked outrage over whether enough is being done to safeguard women in India and punish their perpetrators.
The CCTV footage, which has been extensively disseminated online and sparked outrage across India, shows a number of individuals passing by as the violent attack unfolds. Before the assault on Sunday evening, the couple had been seen arguing, according to the police. The victim was reportedly on her way to a friend's son's birthday party when she was attacked, according to Sky News.
When officers arrived, her body was discovered in a pool of blood. The preliminary findings of the autopsy indicate that the girl's cranium was ruptured during the attack. The mother of the victim stated that he was not known to the family. She stated that they attempted to ask the girl about her beau, but she refused to answer.
Delhi Authorities React to 'Horrible' Incident
The political community, including Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, reacted angrily to the incident, with Kejriwal criticizing the lieutenant governor of the capital for the law and order situation. While Delhi has an elected local government, police and law and order issues are administered at the federal level, with the lieutenant governor serving as the Modi administration's representative in the capital.
Swati Maliwal, the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, said that she has never witnessed such a terrifying event. India has struggled for decades to combat gender violence.
A 2018 survey of experts on women's issues by the Thompson Reuters Foundation ranked the country as the most perilous place in the world to be a woman. In India, the frequency of crimes against women appears to be on the rise. According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, crimes against women were 20% higher in 2020 than in 2013 - the last year before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
Given that many forms of violence against women, such as rape, are often underreported, activists believe that the actual statistics represent only the edge of the iceberg. Yogita Bhayana, the founder of People Against Rapes in India, stated that the problem stems primarily from outdated social norms.
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