“Last month, after the police warned Azhagesan, he said that he won’t let Aswini live peacefully. I did not realise that it would cost my daughter her life,” said Aswini’s mother as she stood and wept at KMC. 

Sankari works as a house help and brought up Aswini and her brother single-handedly after she lost her husband Mohan 15 years ago. In her complaint to Maduravoyal police dated February 16, Aswani had stated that she had been friends with Azhagesan for two years. 

Azhagesan, a resident of Alapakkam, was a helper in a health centre and was a delivery boy for water cans. Soon, however, Aswini realised that he was not good-natured and started avoiding him. But, when Azhagesan continued to follow her, she filed the complaint. The police had caught Azhagesan but had let him off with a warning. 

People who witnessed the stabbing said that Azhagesan’s move seemed premeditated as he hardly spoke to Aswini before attacking her. “He did not even speak to her but pulled out the knife and stabbed her on the neck,” said Sathish Kumar, a local resident, who witnessed the incident. 

“The girl then took a few steps ahead, keeping her hand on the wound as it was bleeding profusely. Then she faltered and collapsed on the road,” Kumar said. A student of the same college where Aswini was studying and who was among the people who overpowered, said, “The man pulled the girl’s hand first and then stabbed her. Her friends who had initially walked away from her after spotting him, started screaming after they saw Aswini bleeding. We then caught hold of the man and thrashed him.” 

He added, “We found a bottle of liquor, a lighter and an Aadhaar card with him. When we asked him why he killed the girl, he said that he wanted to make sure that she did not get to be with anybody after rejecting his proposal. It appeared like he planned to set himself on fire after killing her.”