NEW DELHI: A 23-year-old woman died just past midnight on Monday after she was allegedly stabbed by a man believed to have been angered by constantly being rebuffed whenever he proposed a relationship to her. The woman had left her home for a friend’s birthday celebrations around 11pm, but a couple of hours later, and just 300 metres from her house in Om Vihar, she was spotted by a food delivery executive being attacked by three men.
Police said they received a call at 1.20am on Tuesday about the incident on Matiala Road in Om Vihar near Uttam Nagar in west Delhi. The cops found the victim in a pool of blood with a knife lying nearby. She was later identified as Dolly Babbar, who worked as a freelance event organiser.
At Dolly’s house, her younger brother, Lakshay, said he had received a call from his sister’s boyfriend about her being in danger. “He informed me that Dolly had rung him up and told him that Ankit Gaba had put a gun to her head and was threatening her,” alleged Lakshay. “Soon after, Dolly’s phone fell silent. Sometime later, policemen arrived to tell us about how she had been found bleeding from stab wounds on her hands, neck, chest and back.”
The brother also claimed that Gaba, 25, had been pursuing Dolly for a number of years but she constantly declined his proposals. This was corroborated by Dolly’s cousin, Sanjana, who stated, “For a long time, Ankit has continuously asked her to be in a relationship with him, but she regularly turned him down.” Lakshay also conjectured that the attack could be due to his own affair with Gaba’s younger sister five years ago.
Meena Babbar, Dolly’s mother, recalled her leaving home around 11pm for the cake cutting ceremony at a friend’s house. “She told me not to worry and that she would be home by 1am. Around 1.30am, the cops knocked on the doors instead,” the mother said. Dolly, she added, was a strong and a bright woman who looked after the family. She had lost her job during lockdown but had slowly restarted. Her father drives an autorickshaw.
The spot where she was killed is alleged to be a meeting spot for antisocials. A neighbour of the Babbars said, “We even put up a CCTV camera there, but someone stole it. Every day, the local boys consume liquor there and threaten us if we speak out about it.” The neighbour also claimed that many of them saw the attack but didn’t dare go to Dolly’s help fearing for their own safety.
One of the three accused youth lives near the crime scene. His sister, however, said, “I don’t think my brother could have killed Dolly. He considered her a sister and had accepted a rakhi from her. Yes, he left home and hasn’t returned.”
Police have established the presence of Gaba and two friends, both possibly juveniles, at the crime scene. Shankar Choudhary, DCP (Dwarka) said, “The girl was stabbed by a boy who was her alleged ex-lover. A case of murder has been registered.”
