Lost daughter, now face threats

Usha Devi and Raj Kumar haven’t missed a single hearing in the case against the stalker-turned-killers of their daughter. Having lost her, the couple hope the killers will be hanged to death. To that end, they now wait for August 22, the next date of hearing.

18-year-old Meenakshi was chased by two brothers, stabbed multiple times and killed near her residence in Central Delhi’s Anand Parbat area on July 16, 2015 for lodging a police complaint of stalking against them. The locality, not far from the capital’s heart Connaught Place, was witness to the brutal murder that sent shock waves throughout the nation.

However, 25 months later, Meenakshi’s parents face threats from the accused’s family, all telling them to turn hostile in the case or face horrible consequences. Police, the couple alleges, has remained unresponsive despite being informed about the threats. “Police will respond when one more dies. My husband leaves for work every day. I don’t know whether he will return or not. All I can do is pray. Police, law and order, safety is for people with money. We are living just to see those men hanged by the law,” says Usha, a prime witness in the case.

Recalling the horror, she says, Meenakshi had just returned from work. “It was around 5 pm. She went out to buy milk and rice. After about 20 minutes, I heard her crying for help. As I rushed down the street, I saw her bleeding profusely. Two men from the locality, against whom she had lodged a police complaint a year ago, were stabbing her with knives. When I intervened, they stabbed me also. As the public gathered, they fled. My daughter died, and the two men were arrested,” she recalls.

The mother and younger brother of the accused, who was a juvenile, were let off. “They threaten us even today,” says Raj Kumar, who works as a labourer at a footwear factory.