Hours after he stabbed a 17-year-old minor with a coconut sickle, maiming and grievously injuring her, C Bharath a first-year degree student was arrested on Wednesday by the Hyderabad police. Police have revealed that despite an earlier complaint by the girl's family and subsequent counselling by the SHE team, a special cell of the Hyderabad police that deals with women safety, the man went ahead with the crime.

Police say for the last one year Bharath had been stalking the minor who lived in the same locality as him, in the Kachiguda area of Hyderabad. On Wednesday morning around 8 am Bharath attacked the minor girl outside her home as she was on her way to college.

The accused stabbed the minor multiple times with the coconut sickle causing injuries to her neck, head and both her hands. She is presently being treated at Yashoda hospital in Hyderabad.

A press release by the Hyderabad police stated that "Bharath alias Sonu had been following and harassing the girl claiming to have been in love with her. The girls family had earlier approached the SHE Team accordingly, the SHE team officials had given counselling to the accused Bharath, but the accused Bharath did not change his attitude and continued to observe her movements on the roof of his home."

When Bharath attacked the minor just a few meters away from her home, though she screamed, her mother did not realise that she was calling for help.

In the evening Yashoda hospital told TNM that the minor is still citical. She is still on a ventilator and has not been taken up for surgery, as her condition is still unstable.