Stalker kills woman in south Delhi park

A 28-year-old man was arrested on Friday after he publicly bludgeoned to death his 22-year-old cousin, a woman he was stalking, inside a park in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar, about 100m from a police station, police said.

- Sanjeev K Jha and Aheli Das

The shocking murder, which took place at 11.50am at Vijay Mandal Park in Begumpur near Sri Aurobindo College in Malviya Nagar, transpired at a time when dozens of people were nearby, and again brought to the forefront the dangers faced by women from stalkers.

The attacker, Mohammad Irfan, went to the park with the victim his cousin Nargis and struck her around 40 times in a fit of rage with an iron rod after she refused to marry him, police officers aware of the investigation in the case said.

The aftermath of the crime was recorded by a passersby who later posted videos of the victim's body covered in blood beneath a bench with the murder weapon still lying next to her.

The accused did not attempt to run away after the murder and waited near the crime scene for the police to arrive and nab him, investigators aware of the case said. "He was caught nearly 150m away from crime scene and appeared to exhibit no regret for what he had done," said the police officer. The officer added that Irfan had carried the murder weapon with him to the park concealed in his shirt, indicating that it was likely a preplanned conspiracy. Passersby at the park, who heard the commotion, informed one of the three guards on duty at the time, who, in turn, called the cops.