Vishnupriya had just returned to her home in Kannur’s Panoor a little before noon on Saturday, October 22 when someone entered the house and brutally attacked her. She had been away along with her family to attend the last rites of her grandfather who had died a few days ago, and had gone home to change her clothes and rest for a bit when the crime occurred.
Vishnupriya, aged 23, did not survive the attack. Her mother and other relatives who came home looking for her when she didn’t return for the ceremonies found her dead, stabbed in the neck and with injuries on her head and arms. Hours later, the police arrested 25-year-old Syamjith, who had been seen loitering around the house and is suspected to have murdered Vishnupriya.
“Syamjith has been arrested and charged under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code,” an official at the Panoor police station told TNM. The police did not confirm if the victim knew Syamjith or the motive behind the attack. Syamjith, under police custody, was taken to his house in Kannur’s Manantheri for collection of evidence. Asianet News reported that he pointed to the spot near his house where he had buried a bag of weapons used for the crime – a knife with which he stabbed her, a hammer with which he struck her on the head and another iron tool.
Watch: Syamjith taken for evidence collection
A witness had spotted Syamjith walking to and fro in front of Vishnupriya’s house, wearing a yellow cap and a mask and carrying a bag. Syamjith’s phone number was also reportedly among the last calls on Vishnupriya’s phone. He reportedly surrendered before the police soon afterward.
Though media reports suggested that Syamjith’s was an act of revenge because Vishnupriya had broken up with him, the police have not confirmed this.
The crime, happening close on the heels of the horrific murder of 20-year-old Sathyapriya by a stalker who had known her and harrassed her for months at a Chennai railway station, raises a number of disturbing questions on the safety of young women in the public space and even inside their homes.