Police have named the victim of the vicious assault as 21-year-old Karuna, who worked as a school teacher, and said she had been previously harassed by her attacker.
Graphic CCTV footage of the attack shows a man grab Karuna and fling her to the ground before repeatedly stabbing her and kicking her in the head.
Numerous people are filmed walking along the street in the Burari area of Delhi during the attack, and at least one man does appear to approach the assailant before backing away. However, many others stop and watch the events unfold but fail to take any steps to intervene.
People eventually stepped in when the man, who has been named in local media as 34-year-old Surender Singh, tried to flee the scene.
Family of the stabbed girl protest & make human chain outside Sushruta Trauma Centre (ISBT) demanding justice #BurariIncident pic.twitter.com/cPSk59Mhph
— ANI (@ANI_news) September 20, 2016
Police deputy commissioner Madhur Verma said Singh was “chased by the public and handed over to police.” He has since been charged with murder. Verma also revealed that Singh had a history of harassing Karuna and she had filed a police complaint against him.
“The assailant had been troubling the woman [for] a year or so. The family had lodged a complaint four or five months back and both the families had reached a compromise.”
Hindustan Times has reported that Singh claimed to be in love with Karuna for more than a year and had proposed marriage to her several times, but she had repeatedly rejected him.
Graphic CCTV footage of the murder was published online and the fact that passers-by failed to help Karuna has sparked outrage.
