A Kochi man, who had been absconding after allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old girl, was arrested by Info Park police on Tuesday. The girl had been stabbed multiple times while she was returning home from work on Monday evening and has been hospitalised with serious injuries.
19-year-old Amal TB, a resident of Padamugal in Kakkanad, was arrested by police from his relative’s house, where he had allegedly been absconding after the incident. According to police, he attacked the girl as she allegedly denied his advances.
The girl, a native of Athani in Ernakulam, was attacked while she was leaving her part-time work place in Kakkanad around 5 pm on Monday. According to reports, the accused pushed the girl down and stabbed her in the chest, stomach, hands and neck.
“Following the incident, he fled from the spot. We nabbed him from his relative’s place. The arrest was registered on Tuesday evening. We will present him before the magistrate on Wednesday morning,” an official from the Info Park police station told TNM.
The girl, who suffered critical injuries, was shifted from Kalamassery Medical College to Kottayam Medical College on Tuesday. “Her condition is still critical. We want to find out whether her spinal cord was damaged in the attack. We have shifted her to Kottayam Medical College to conduct some specific tests,” Dr Ganesh Mohan, RMO of Kalamassery Medical College said.
Amal has been charged under Sections 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354D (Stalking) and 307 (Attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
In a similar incident, a 19-year-old woman in Thiruvananthapuram was killed by a stalker on Monday.
Kerala witnessed three such similar attacks last year. In March 2019, Kavitha Vijaykumar, a 20-year-old BTech student from Pathanamthitta, was set on fire and killed by Ajin Reji Mathew. Thrissur native 21-year-old Neethu was killed in a similar manner one month later by a man named Nidheesh after she refused to marry him. In June last year, a civil police officer, Soumya Pushpakaran, was stabbed and set on fire while returning from work by her stalker Ajaz.