Swathi, an Infosys employee, was hacked to death at Chennai's Nungambakkam Railway Station
Highlights
- 24-year-old Infosys employee hacked to death in busy railway station
- Nobody came forward to help, her body lay at the station for 2 hours
- Court orders cops to find her killer, and alleged stalker, in 2 days
24-year-old Infosys employee S Swathi bled to death at a busy railway station in Chennai on Friday, after being hacked by an alleged stalker while she was waiting for her train to work. Those who witnessed the attack failed to react; the police say many walked away from the gruesome scene and took the next train.
"Mute spectators have deprived us of the chance to see our daughter," Swathi's father Santhana Gopala Krishnan said, speaking to NDTV four days after her murder.
Swathi, he said, was a "very tender-hearted girl" and wanted to donate her organs. "If we had her organs, we would have given it to people in need. And looking at them, I could have told myself she is still alive, with us...'
By the time the police retrieved the body, it had been hours.
"If anybody had reacted, or countered (the attack), it could have been averted. I don't know...due to aversion or some kind of selfishness...they didn't. We should not be like that," Mr Krishnan said.
The Madras High Court yesterday ordered the Chennai police to find the killer within two days, warning of action for "slackness".
The court also
tore into the police, asking: "Where were your police officers? Swathi's body was lying like an exhibition for two hours. Even the dead have got right to dignity under the Constitution."
Footage released by the police over the weekend shows the suspect with a backpack walking briskly in one clip and running away from the station in another.
Swathi's father said: "The police have assured us they will catch the killer. We have full faith in them."
He agreed that major security lapses contributed to the crime. "The security lapses are understood by all people. Even the police were not available at the time," he said.