Twenty-year-old Sathya Priya’s life came to a horrific end on October 13, Thursday, when a man known to her pushed her in front of an oncoming train at the St Thomas Mount Railway Station in Chennai. According to police sources, the murderer D Sathish (30) had been harassing Sathya, a BSc student at Jain College in T Nagar, for a whole year. Sathish’s persistent harassment had even led to her file complaints against him on two occasions, at the Mambalam and St Thomas Mount police stations.
Sathish is the son of a retired Special Sub Inspector (SSI), who worked at the Adambakkam police station. Sathya’s mother is a Head Constable at the same police station. Both Sathya and Sathish lived in the same area in Guindy, where they first became acquainted.
On May 20, 2022, Sathya’s mother Ramalakshmi filed a complaint at the Mambalam police station, alleging that Sathish had an argument with her daughter outside her college. On May 23, the police registered an FIR and booked Sathish under section 75 of Tamil Nadu City Police Act,1888 – penalty for drunkenness or riotous or indecent behaviour in public place. Sathish was arrested but granted station bail the same day. Sathish was not booked for stalking or harassment.
Two days later, Ramalakshmi filed another complaint at the St Thomas Mount railway station against Sathish. Sources told TNM that the police asked both families to appear for an inquiry. However, a ‘compromise’ was struck and no FIR was registered. Ramalakshmi was made to give in writing that she didn’t want to proceed further with the complaint.
Despite the complaints against him and the police’s ‘compromise’, Sathish did not stop harassing Sathya. Sources tell TNM that Sathish had instead taken to stalking Sathya wherever she went. Questions are now being raised as to why no case of stalking or harassment was filed against Sathish.
Neighbours described Sathya as a polite, friendly young woman. Everyone in the quarters usually identified her house as ‘Sathya’s house’, they said. One woman who wanted to remain anonymous said, “If someone is saying no, a person should leave them alone. But this boy’s thought was ‘if I can’t have her, no one can’. Was she born for him?”
According to Sathya’s classmate, who did not want to be identified, even after a complaint was filed against him Sathish had turned up at her college just a month ago and created a disturbance. “I used to take her to the station on my bike. Sathish would be waiting outside the bike mechanic shop. One day, I phoned and asked her father to come. There was an argument, her father yelled at him. This was two months back. The family gave a complaint. But about a month ago, Sathish came to the college and created a scene. A few others boys and I had to intervene and make him leave, but he made Sathya say she loves him in front of everyone.”
The bike repair shop where Sathish would wait for Sathya
“I would have brought her back home yesterday too, I usually do. But I couldn’t and this happened. All our classmates are grieving back in college,” he added.
On Thursday, Sathish tracked her down to the St Thomas Mount Railway Station and got into an argument with her, before fatally pushing her onto the railway track as a train approached. Sathya’s body came under the wheels and she died on the spot. Immediately after, Sathish fled the station, an eyewitness says. The Railway Police later arrived on the scene of the murder and retrieved Sathya’s body from the tracks. The body was then sent for a post-mortem examination. As part of the probe into the case, four teams have been formed under the Railway Police, and three under the St Thomas Mount Commissioner of Law and Order. The police also retrieved the CCTV footage from the station and nearby areas to ascertain the identity of the accused. Sathish was eventually arrested in the early hours of Friday. He was found in Thoraipakkam and has been taken to the Mambalam police station for further questioning. Tragically, a day after his daughter’s murder, Sathya’s father Manikam died by suicide on Friday.
Sathya’s murder shines light on several concerns, one of the most important being that such a tragedy could have been averted, if only her complaints had not been disregarded in the first place. Besides, this is also not the first time that crimes like Sathya’s murder have occurred at a railway station in Chennai. Her death is starkly reminiscent of the 2016 murder of 24-year-old Swathi, an Infosys employee who was brutally hacked to death at the Nungambakkam Railway Station in Chennai. Again, only last year, Madras Christian College (MCC) student Swetha was stabbed and killed at the Tambaram Railway Station. In both cases, the killers were men. In Swetha’s case, she had known the murderer Ramachandran for three years. In a chilling similarity to Sathya’s murder, Ramachandran had also gotten into an argument with Swetha, before he stabbed her in a fit of rage.