Chetpet stabbing: 3 years since Swathi, another young woman battles for life
Chetpet stabbing: 3 years since Swathi, another young woman battles for life

Chetpet stabbing: 3 years since Swathi, another young woman battles for life

25-year-old Thenmozhi was heading back to her hostel from work when she was assaulted on the platform allegedly by 27-year-old Surendar.

In less than 10 days, it will be three years since 24-year-old techie Swathi was brutally hacked to death in broad daylight. But very little seems to have changed since then. While Swathi’s murder by her alleged stalker Ramkumar in Nungambakkam station appalled the public in the state, just one station away at Chetpet, another gruesome attack took place on June 14 this year.

On what looked like a routine Friday late evening at the Chetpet MRTS station, a young woman's screams shocked everyone present. 25-year-old Thenmozhi was heading back to her hostel from work when she was assaulted on the platform, slashed on the face and hand with a knife allegedly by 27-year-old Surendar.

As Thenmozhi lay in a pool of blood, Surender tried to take his own life by jumping in front of a passing train. However, he missed the tracks and instead injured himself seriously on the head before falling inside the train’s compartment. 

The MRTS railway station in Chetpet, where the crowd ebbs and flows, is not as populated as the other two stations between which it lies - Egmore and Nungambakkam. Most commuters who board down/up in Chetpet, with the exception of the area residents, are those heading to Pachaiyappa’s College in the West or Kilpauk Medical College in the East.

When 40-year-old Jaya, who was on cleaning duty that evening, heard a woman’s screams, she dropped her broom and immediately rushed towards the source of the sound. People from Boopathy Nagar (a stone’s throw away from the station), those already in the station and a few more who were exiting the train that had just reached platform No.1 rushed to help Thenmozhi. An ambulance was immediately called and while it reached the station in half an hour, an unconscious Surender was taken in the same train to the Government Rajaji Hospital.

Jaya, along with the help of a few others, carried the bleeding young woman to the ambulance and Jaya stayed with her throughout the journey. “I couldn’t leave her alone. She couldn’t speak but was crying in pain. There was a lot of blood. So I stayed with her in the hospital the entire night. In the morning, about 6.00 am, as soon as her father reached, I left the hospital,” says Jaya.

Jaya, who has been a cleaning staff in the Railways for 12 years, also resides nearby the Chetpet station. The platform, on which the incident took place, faces a thicket separated by a rusted iron fence and beyond this are a parking area and a small temple. The locals near the station tell TNM that it gets quiet sometimes but that 8.00 pm is a peak hour. As for Surender, Jaya says that he had hit himself with the same knife on his head before jumping on the train.

After some thought, Jaya adds, “I remember when Swathi was murdered just one stop away from here. I did not want that to happen once again.”

Egmore Sub Inspector S Amudha, who was investigating the case on Saturday morning, points to the dried blood on the platform, right beneath an RPF display, and says, “This is where it took place. This station does not have a Station Master. There’s a ticket vendor whose cubicle is on the overhead bridge but he does not come down here. The station had one RPF constable who was on surveillance when the incident happened.”

RPF constable Manoj Kumar, who was on duty that evening, was standing on the other corner facing platform 2. “When I heard the screaming, I immediately ran and saw the man jumping into the train,” says Manoj Kumar. He does not remember seeing either of them earlier nor did he notice any unusual behaviour in the station up until that point.

DGP C Sylendra Babu who is currently investigating the case told the media that the two, Thenmozhi and Surendar, hail from Erode. “The woman was employed at a government office and the man had come to Chennai just one day before, informing his family that he was attending a wedding. The two were acquainted and were in fact talking to each other at first before the man slashed her with the knife.”

Thenmozhi, who passed TNPSC Group 4 exam, was appointed as a Registrar of the Cooperative Societies and moved to Chennai just three months ago. Surender was an insurance agent working in Erode. While the two had known each other for three years, Thenmozhi began avoiding Surender when her father disagreed to his proposal, asking for Thenmozhi’s hand in marriage. Thenmozhi is from a Dalit family while Surendar belongs to the Naidu caste.

“She has two younger sisters and her father had made his decision clear to Thenmozhi. She too severed contact with Surender but he was relentless. He tracked her down in Chennai and confronted her on Friday evening before finally assaulting and injuring her grievously,” says a senior officer.

An FIR has been filed under section 307 of the IPC (Attempt to murder) with the SC/ST Atrocities Act. Thenmozhi, who is currently undergoing treatment in Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, is recovering from a fractured jaw and arm. The hospital’s dean says that it might be 10 days before she is discharged from the hospital. “We’ve advised her against speaking, to heal better,” says Dr P Vasantha Mani, the Dean.

When TNM reached out to Thenmozhi’s father, Veeramani, a daily wage labourer, he said, “I was the one who said no to him. He did not trouble me but he has gone ahead and done this to my daughter."

Three years since the Swathi murder, the Tamil Nadu government is yet to install CCTV cameras in the stations. While there’s a proposal for the same in 136 stations, progress seems to have halted at the bureaucracy level. Would the presence of such cameras alone prevent such crimes from happening again? “We might be able to deter instances of chain snatching and stone pelting that’s common to these areas if that were the case, but instances such as these are unpredictable. However, there is a need for CCTV surveillance and we hope it is installed soon,” adds SI Amudha.

As of Saturday afternoon, Surender still remains unconscious while undergoing treatment at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in Chennai, even as life has chugged back to normal at the Chetpet station.

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