KOLKATA: A teenaged girl was hacked to death in Barasat near Kolkata on Friday. A young man allegedly attacked her with a cleaver as she was playing volleyball with 30 other girls.
Sangita Aich, pet name Tina and just over 14, was a class 9 student at a local school and an ace sports person. She was to play a match today. The assailant, Subrata Singha or Raja, about 18 or 19, had met her, apparently on the volleyball field, proposed to her, been turned down and did not take it well.
The coach, Swapan Das, tried to save Tina. When he saw Raja rush towards her with the chopper, he grabbed the chair he was sitting on and tried to beat the youth back as Tina cowered behind him.
But then the girl ran, towards her house barely 100 metres away. But she did not make it. Raja caught up with her, felled her with a swing of the weapon, hacked at her several times and fled.
"If Tina had stayed behind me, he would have had to kill me first. And he may have too," said Mr Das. "But she tried to run, he chased and slashed her brutally."
Some of the girls playing volleyball fainted. Locals were too scared to tackle Raja as he fled. By the time they recovered from the shock and rushed the girl to hospital, she was dead.
"I have a food stall near the volleyball field," said Gopal Aich, the victim's uncle. "Suddenly, some people rushed over and said hurry up your niece has been attacked. I ran to her. she was bleeding and writhing in pain. I dragged her down to the main road. I tried to get a rickshaw. Many refused. Finally, one rickshaw took us to hospital but then they said she was dead."
The motive of the murder is not clear but police suspect it may be a case of unrequited love. Some members of Tina's family are now claiming Raja had threatened her in the past and the family had even gone to the police but no one followed up. Tina's father who owns a small grocery shop was in shock and could not speak.
The police is now searching for Raja, whose photo was identified from his Facebook account by Mr Das. He is a resident of Barrackpore 15 kilometres away from Barasat.
