The Delhi police claim to have identified the killer of 20-year-old Radhika Tanwar, and say that he will be arrested soon. "The accused is a mentally disturbed youth from Uttar Pradesh, and he wanted to avenge the humiliation he suffered when he was beaten up for stalking her three years ago, a police official said."
"Investigations have revealed that he has a psychopathic streak. He is learnt to have been involved in stalking women in his village," a police official said. The alleged murderer has been identified as 25-year-old Vijay alias Ram Singh, from Viswan village in Sitapur.
Police zeroed in on Vijay after investigators arrested his two friends -- Tabrez and Ashraf -- who allegedly harboured and helped him flee the capital on March 10, two days after the murder.
The grudge
Singh allegedly used to follow Radhika, who was 17 then, to her school and back. Finally, she complained to her friend and a classmate, Aditya Singh, who then along with two local goons, beat Singh up.
They threatened him and asked him to leave Naraina village if he wanted to live in peace. This did not go well with Singh, who lost his job at the local weaving and knitting factory. "His employer told him that he could not keep a woman stalker on payroll. Singh then vowed to his two friends that nobody would get away with insulting him like that and that he would take his revenge. He then went to Mumbai, where he worked at another factory. A month and a half back, he came back to Delhi and this time changed his name to Vijay," the source said.
As soon as he arrived, he met his former employer, who again refused to give him back his old job. Then he went to Shakur Basti in east Delhi, where he found employment at another factory, police said.
He tracked Radhika again and learnt that she took a bus to her Ram Lal Anand college in Delhi University's south campus in Dhaula Kuan every morning at 9.15 am.
"He started stalking her again. Even Radhika noticed this and confided in her friend, Aditya, who now was studying in the same college."
Aditya said that she was afraid the same man who used to stalk her was following her again. But this time, Singh kept his distance and Aditya did not get a chance to confront him," the source added.
After two weeks of following her, Singh struck on March 8. He allegedly stood waiting for Radhika at the opposite side of the college. As she took the foot over bridge to her college, he followed her and shot her with a country-made pistol at point blank range.
The bullet hit Radhika's spine below her neck, killing her in seconds. The stunned crowd did not react for several minutes, letting Singh escape into the crowd in Benito Juarez Marg.
The escape
"After escaping from the crime scene on March 8, Singh took a bus to the rented accommodation of Ashraf and Tabrez, in Rohini. They took him to Gurgaon, where he stayed at a common friend's house. He spent the night there and the next morning, Ashraf and Tabrez visited him again.
"They advised him to get out of the city, as the murder had been splashed all over the news, with the Delhi chief minister taking special interest in the case. They took him to the railway station, from where he took a train to a location we would not like to divulge right now," the officer said.
Meanwhile, Aditya had identified the sketch police had prepared from descriptions given by witnesses. Aditya had told police that it matched the man he had roughed up three years ago.
"We will arrest the killer soon," deputy commissioner of police (south), HGS Dhaliwal told rediff.com.
A chequered past
Police officials said that Ram Singh is the son of a farmer, Radhey Shyam, and hails from Bisua village in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh. When the south Delhi police called the local police station, they were informed that the accused had a history of chasing and harassing girls in his village .
He had been roughed up several times in his village for this, and finally had to leave his village in shame about four years ago. He had cut contact with all his relatives, including his four brothers.
Protests
Meanwhile, still claiming that the police theory of a jilted lover was false, Radhika's family protested near Naraina village. Aided by students and residents, the protestors managed to block the busy Ring Road for 30 minutes on Friday morning, demanding that Radhika's murderer be brought to book.
"We will continue the protests till her killer is arrested. Police are just cooking up stories about a stalker. There was never any stalker," Radhika's father, Rajender Singh Tanwar told rediff.com.
"If there was a stalker like that, why would we not have come to know about it? Her so-called stalker was never beaten up by anyone in the village."
"It has been three days since the murder, and since the police have no answers, they are coming up with these silly stories. And even otherwise, as her father, is it not their responsibility to tell us what is going on?" Rajender added.
Radhika lived with her family in Naraina. Her brother, Vipin Tanwar is a first year BBA student in Delhi, while the other brother, Praveen is in IInd standaerd. Her sister, Rajni stays in Gwalior. Her father is a property dealer in the area.
With inputs from Onkar Singh
