A 15-year-old girl who had a dozen of taekwondo medalswasn’t able to defend herself from a man because he was behind her with an axe,the girl was murdered on Monday in South Delhi’s Moti Bagh area, reported onThursday.
The police identified that the murderer was Pradeep andwas stalking the soon to be 16-year-old girl and left her dead before herbirthday. The witness of the attack was the mother of the girl itself but wasn’table to recognize her daughter because she was standing at a distance fromwhere she couldn’t recognize the girl.
When the mother saw the incident occurring, Pradeep wasblowing off the girl’s forehead. The 40-year-old mother said, “Pradeep must behanged” at the south hutment where she lives with her husband and 3 children. She also said that her daughter stayedwatchful ever since the 21-year-old man started stalking her.
When the incident happened, the mother was drying clothesoutside and saw her daughter being killed right in front of her eyes on theother side of the park. She also described the incident and said that the15-year-old fell down and the man was chasing her, hit her and ran away. Shealso called for help, screamed but as the mother didn’t know that she was herdaughter she couldn’t save her.
On the other hand, the father told that he had a conversationabout the stalker and asked her father to ensure punishment just in case hetries to harm her. He also stated that 2 months ago Pradeep had stoppedstalking her when he confronted him, which further lead to a fight with Pradeepand his friends near the South Moti Bagh market, where the family ran a roadsidefruit shop.
The father of the daughter used to do odd jobs and saidthat he used to drop his daughter at the shop every day but on July 12, shewalked alone and left early for work. The father said, “I will regret this forthe rest of my life.”
The younger sister of the victim was planning a surprise birthdayparty for the 16th birthday of her elder sister and the 12-year oldtold that she asked for Rs. 1,500 so that she may gift her elder sister a bag,a pair of sneakers and jeans.
The Deputy Commissioner of Southwest police, Ingit PratapSingh said, “He bought the axe from a market in RK Puram around a month beforethe attack.”
Since the arrest, the rental house where Pradeep livedwith his parents has been locked. The neighbors of Pradeep stated that he onlyremembers him wasting time with the boys of the locality and who remainedunemployed.
A local shop-ownersaid, “He probably used to work somewhere till a year ago, but lost his jobduring the Covid lockdown. He was a wastrel, but we never thought that he wouldgo to the extent of killing someone.”