Crowd just WATCH as woman stabbed 20 times on street in India (GRAPHIC VIDEO)
The brutal killing of a young woman on a busy street in Delhi has sparked outrage across India after CCTV footage of the violent assault showed passersby walking past without intervening.
Police have named the victim of the vicious assault as 21-year-old Karuna, who worked as a school teacher, and said she had been previously harassed by her attacker.
Graphic CCTV footage of the attack shows a man grab Karuna and fling her to the ground before repeatedly stabbing her and kicking her in the head.
Shocking incident in Delhi of stabbing of 21-yr old woman. Delhi Police needs to focus on citizen's security than harassing AAP MLAs.
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) September 20, 2016
Numerous people are filmed walking along the street in the Burari area of Delhi during the attack, and at least one man does appear to approach the assailant before backing away. However, many others stop and watch the events unfold but fail to take any steps to intervene.
People eventually stepped in when the man, who has been named in local media as 34-year-old Surender Singh, tried to flee the scene.
Police deputy commissioner Madhur Verma said Singh was “chased by the public and handed over to police.” He has since been charged with murder. Verma also revealed that Singh had a history of harassing Karuna and she had filed a police complaint against him.
DelhiPolice must answer why no action was taken despite complaint by Karuna's family. Should LG Jung not be accountable for this death 2/n
— Shehzad Poonawalla (@Shehzad_Ind) September 20, 2016
"The assailant had been troubling the woman [for] a year or so. The family had lodged a complaint four or five months back and both the families had reached a compromise."
Hindustan Times has reported that Singh claimed to be in love with Karuna for more than a year and had proposed marriage to her several times, but she had repeatedly rejected him.
Graphic CCTV footage of the murder was published online and the fact that passers-by failed to help Karuna has sparked outrage.
Such a shame. A Man stabbing a woman multiple times in open road in Delhi. People running away or just watching. Shameless cowards
— Joy (@Joydas) September 20, 2016
Karuna murdered. Is alert to thesociety, specialty Delhi. There is no fearoflaw how person stab 30times in daytime, police not reach in time
— suresh maniar (@suresh_maniar) September 20, 2016
Indian actress Dolly Bindra said on Facebook: "It's a shame to all of us that [those who were] present there watching [were] not helping – and today the girl is no more.”
The murder is the second instance of a woman being fatally attacked in the Indian capital in the past two days. On Sunday, a 28-year-old mother of two identified as Laxmi, was stabbed and killed in southwest Delhi by a man who claimed to be in love with her, the Times of India reports.
Data from India's National Crime Records Bureau says there were over 130,000 sexual offenses reported last year. Over 82,000 of these crimes fell under the category of “Assault on Women With Intent to Outrage her Modesty.” Over 1,100 cases of stalking were reported in the city of Delhi.