The Mamallapuram police on Saturday morning arrested a 20-year-old stalker who stabbed a Class 11 student to death, allegedly for rejecting his marriage proposal. The accused, identified as Durga Rao alias Ashok, a migrant worker from Andhra Pradesh, had been on the run after barging into the victim’s house and stabbing her multiple times on Thursday.
On Saturday morning, a team of officers from the Mamallapuram police station arrested him from near the Poonjeri junction in Chengalpattu. He was later produced before the district magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.
Twenty-year-old Durga Rao had been working as a daily wage labourer under the 17-year-old victim’s father who is a mason. The accused then befriended the Class 11 student and asked her to marry him. His advances were rejected by both the girl and her father, according to the police. However the accused continued to stalk her.
On Thursday, the accused reportedly barged into the house of the victim when she was alone and asked her to elope with him. When she rejected the proposal, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her multiple times, after which he fled the spot.
Hearing the victim’s cries for help, a few neighbours rushed to the house and took her to a hospital on the East Coast Road (ECR) where she succumbed to her injuries.
According to reports, the victim’s father had also stopped sending the 17-year-old to school as he feared that the accused would follow her there. The accused had also reportedly enquired for her at her school before entering the family’s house and stabbing the minor.
“We have registered a case under IPC sections 302 (murder), 448 (punishment for house trespass), and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint),” Mamallapuram PS inspector told TNM.
Tamil Nadu has witnessed several cases of stalking and related crimes against women in the recent past. In February 2019, a 23-year-old teacher was murdered by her alleged stalker while she was sitting inside one of the classrooms in her school in Cuddalore. The accused man was identified as a Rajasekhar who allegedly murdered the young teacher for rejecting his marriage proposal.
In March 2018, Aswini student from Chennai’s Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research campus in KK Nagar was stabbed to death in broad daylight. Her stalker-murderer was identifie as Alagesan who slit her throat with a serrated knife outside the campus. The accused was detained and handed over to the police by the public.
Read: 23-year-old TN teacher murdered inside classroom by stalker
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Source: The News Minute