"She Wanted To Become Lawyer": Father Of Teen Murdered In Delhi

The girl, who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death by a man in northwest Delhi's Shahbad Dairy area, recently passed her Class 10 exams and wanted to become a lawyer, her father said on Monday.

The victim had gone shopping on Sunday evening for the birthday party of her friend's child when she was accosted by the accused in the densely populated neighbourhood, stabbed her over 20 times and hit her with a cement slab repeatedly.

"She called me recently that she has passed her Class 10 exams and wanted to become a lawyer. She was the eldest among two siblings," said her father, who works as a labourer.

Police said the victim and the accused, 20-year-old Sahil, were in a "relationship" that had turned sour and the two had a fight on Saturday.

However,  the victim's father said he did not know anything about the accused or whether anyone was disturbing his daughter.

"We never heard about the accused. She told us about her friends, but never about Sahil," he said.

"We want capital punishment for the accused who brutally killed our daughter," he said.

The family was in intense grief and pain as the 16-year-old's body was cremated Monday evening.

The mother of the girl, watching helplessly as the pyre was lit, said, "We had our dinner and were planning to sleep when her friend Bhawana knocked our door on Sunday around 9 pm. She informed us that someone has killed her. We did not believe her words. We rushed to the spot and saw our daughter lying there in a pool of blood." "We met a person in the hospital who said he was there at the spot and tried to save their daughter, but he was also attacked by the accused," she said.

An elderly woman, who witnessed the Sunday's incident, said, "People gather near our house every evening and have liquor or drugs. When we try to disperse them, they abuse us and threaten us. They are not scared of anyone. The Sunday incident was very unfortunate and the accused should be punished for his act." 

"The atmosphere in our locality has changed. Several anti-social elements are roaming here. I have seen the CCTV footage of the incident and it was very unfortunate that no one came forward to save the girl," he said.

Delhi Police said the accused was arrested from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

A nearly 90-second video of the incident that was shared online showed the accused pinning the victim to a wall with one hand and stabbing her repeatedly. He did not stop even when the girl slumped to the ground, jabbing the knife into her over 20 times, kicking her and then slamming a cement slab on her repeatedly.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)