On October 23, a man named Vicky was stabbed to death outside Vijay Singh Pathik Government Post Graduate College in Kairana, Uttar Pradesh. Vicky was the cousin of a female student of the college. She had complained to him that a group of 7-8 local men were sexually harassing her, Vicky’s father claimed. And Vicky had gone to confront the alleged harassers. 

In a video captured by CCTV cameras outside the college, a group of men whose faces can be clearly seen surround Vicky and one of them stabs him in the stomach. They can then be seen fleeing on motorbikes while Vicky, bleeding, tries to follow them. Vicky succumbed to his injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Monday. 

“Our daughter didn’t complain to the police thinking about her image in society. She thought it would be better if she told her brother instead, but this was a mistake,” said Vicky’s father.

The police have arrested the main accused, Anuj Kumar, and charged him with murder. He’s an alumnus of the college. “The victim’s family has insisted that they do not want to implicate anyone else, and as per their request, we have only arrested the prime accused,” said Ajay Kumar, the police chief of Shamli district. He claimed the other people seen in the video are students of the college who were trying to protect the victim.

Vicky’s relatives claim that one of the men harassing his cousin is a college student known to her. 

The college’s principal, Chaman Lal, said, “What happened is very unfortunate. If any of the culprits belong to our college we will take strict action as soon as we get a confirmation from the police.” 

Asked about security arrangements outside the college’s gate, Lal replied,  “Although we can’t control what outsiders do outside the college, we have asked our proctorial board to tighten the security at the gate and have requested local police officers to patrol the area so that incidents like this never happen again.”

Commenting about the incident, Shabnam Hashmi, a women’s rights activist, said, “Patriarchy, communalism and casteism are ingrained in the mind of the majority of the police force. The first contact with the police most often ends in total apathy or even hostility. An ordinary citizen, and more so women, do not have the confidence that they will be treated with respect. In some cases, the officers are good but going to the police or courts is a taboo in our society, especially in smaller towns and rural areas.”