Chennai: Days before death, Swathi was slapped by a man, says eyewitness

Chennai: A week after the murder of a 24-year-old woman IT professional in Chennai, an eyewitness revealed that days before her death she was slapped five times by a man at the Nungambakkam railway station.

D Tamilarasan, a teacher who lives in the same locality as Swathi, said in the first week of June a man approached Swathi at the Nungambakkam railway station and slapped her several times. “She received all the blows without any resistance and then boarded the train quietly,” said Tamilarasan.

However, the eyewitness believes that men involved in both the incidents are different. “The person who slapped Swathi was wheatish, while the killer had a slightly darker tone.”

“On Friday, Swathi was waiting for the train at the platform and I was standing a few yards away. Suddenly, I heard her shout and sound of the sickle slashing her. Within seconds of the attack, Swathi collapsed on the platform, smeared in blood and in a few minutes her body had become still. A woman standing beside me said ‘She is gone’.”

Swathi, employed with IT major Infosys, was allegedly hacked to death by an unidentified man on a platform in the busy Nugambakkam railway station on Friday. She was waiting to board a train on her way to office around 6:30 am when she was murdered. No arrest has been made so far.

“Two men chased the assailant but he crossed between the railway tracks, scaled a wall and escaped,” recounts Tamilarasan.

On Thursday, police released a new photo of the suspect. The photo gives a front view of the suspect, a young man wearing a blue shirt and carrying a backpack.

On Sunday, police had CCTV footage of the suspect, showing him crossing the tracks and jumping outside the railway station premises. The footage was acquired from a nearby house.
Meanwhile, various probe teams of the Chennai police have been conducting door-to-door enquiries since Tuesday night in Choolaimedu and Paranoor showing CCTV images of the suspect.

Swathi's friend and Infosys colleague who had stayed with her on the nights of June 9 and 10 confirmed that it was a stalker who killed her. She told police that she saw a man following them on June 10 and 11 morning when they walked to the Nungambakkam railway station from Swathi's home. Her friend further said the CCTV image matches with that of the man who followed them on those two days.

The probe teams had already come to believe the killer was a stalker, about whom she had told to her father and friends. Her father had not noticed the stalker though he had been dropping her at the station regularly in the last few weeks. The suspect had even stalked her right up to her Infosys office some days, police sources said. Cops have got in touch with a train passenger who had revealed that the suspect used to board a general coach next to the women's compartment.