Police suspect that a man known to a 21-year-old Delhi University SOL student stabbed her multiple times to death at her home in the Tilak Nagar area because he was enraged over her talking to another person, an official said on Thursday.

The accused, identified as Imran (26), is absconding and police have formed about 15 teams to apprehend him, they said. Police said the victim was a second-year student at the School of Open Learning (SOL) and lived with her family in a building near Mangla Hospital in West Delhi.

According to the investigation, the woman, who is from a different community, knew the accused — a former gym trainer who is currently unemployed — for about a year and a half. Police said the two had also met at a hotel on August 20.

They said the accused had allegedly been angry with the woman for the last two months because she was talking to someone else. On Wednesday evening, the accused went to the woman’s house when she was alone.

An argument broke out between the two, after which he allegedly attacked her with a knife and fled, police said. CCTV footage showed the accused entering the building around 5:40 pm, a police source said.

Tilak Nagar Police Station received a PCR call regarding the stabbing of a girl at 7:24 pm, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Hareshwar V Swami. Police said the house help discovered the girl lying injured on the second floor of the building and informed her family. Police were then called, and they rushed her to the hospital, where doctors declared the woman dead on arrival.

A post-mortem examination will ascertain the exact cause and nature of the injuries, police said.

The DCP said the crime and forensic teams conducted photography and inspection.

“A murder case has been registered based on the statement of the deceased’s brother, and an investigation is underway. He said his sister knew a boy named Aqib alias Imran, who resides in the nearby area,” the officer said.

The brother suspects that Aqib committed the crime, he said.

Aman, a friend of the victim, told reporters that the deceased was the youngest of four siblings.

“Her elder sister called me from Chandigarh and asked me to reach their home. She told me that her sister had been stabbed. I called my friends to take her to the hospital. When I reached there, an ambulance was already there. Later on, the hospital pronounced her dead,” he said.

Aman said the accused had been pursuing her for a long time and that her family had informed him about the alleged harassment. Family members of the deceased were seen waiting outside the hospital during the post-mortem examination.

A senior police officer said more than 15 teams were tracing the accused and that investigators had received some important inputs regarding his whereabouts. Police said they will arrest the accused soon and share more facts about the case.

As the accused and the victim are from different communities, police have stepped up security in the area.

A victim’s neighbour said she had seen the woman about an hour before the incident. “I think she had returned from the gym. The family had been staying in a rented house for many years,” she said.

Another neighbour said residents learned about the incident around 7:30 pm and immediately went to check what had happened. “I learned that the boy was a gym trainer from a different community. Many families in the locality are fearful,” he said.

The neighbour appealed to residents to exercise caution when choosing gyms and said, “I would personally suggest that gym goers must verify details about the staff working there.”

A worker at the gym where the victim used to work out and where the accused had earlier been employed as a trainer said the accused’s behaviour with several customers was inappropriate. The worker said the gym removed him about two months ago after he worked there for just three months because of his conduct.

“We never noticed anything between the girl and the boy. She came, did her workout and left without talking to him,” the gym worker said.

She said Delhi Police teams had visited the establishment and questioned staff members about the accused. Police teams are raiding locations where the accused might be hiding. They are also examining CCTV footage from the area and other places to establish his movements before and after the crime

(Inputs from PTI)

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