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A week after the murder of an Infosys employee S Swathi, an eyewitness has said that she had been assaulted by another man about two weeks before she was killed at the same platform in the Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai.
D Tamilarasan, a teacher by profession and passenger who regularly travels from the Nungambakkam station, said the first incident happened either on 6 or 7 June.
He said that a person with backpack had repeatedly slapped Swathi at the station, reports The Times of India. However, the complexion of the man in the CCTV was darker than the man who had slapped her, Tamilarasan said.
“He Slapped Her 5 or 6 Times”
The man must have slapped about five or six times. She sort of collapsed after it. She picked up her mobile phone and quietly got into the next train. It was very surprising for me that she did not react at all, and many passengers questioned her on the same. I remember that this man was quite young, must have been 30 or so. He was fair or wheatish and not like the person who was in the CCTV footage.D Tamilarasan to The News Minute
When asked if anyone else had witnessed the slapping incident, he told The News Minute, “There is a place she normally waits at, and the assault happened there. There must have been a few people, but I cannot remember who the other passengers were.”
A week later, on 24 June, when Swathi was hacked to death, he said he had a fleeting glimpse of the man who killed her.
I heard her cry and rushed to the spot as I was little away. By then, she had been hacked, and the hacker was on the run. I could not get a clear view of him but another passenger tried chasing him. Since she died in a few minutes, many of us were shellshocked and got into the next train and left. We assumed that the killer will surrender to the police.
Swathi’s relative, who did not want to be quoted, however said that the slapping incident had never happened as per their knowledge.
Bystanders Tried to Help Swathi
In another report by The Times of India, Tamilasaran confirmed that the man in the CCTV image looks like Swathi’s killer. He also claimed that while few passengers boarded the next train and left the site, two people chased the murderer.
However, the killer jumped off platform number two and crossed a track from where a train from the opposite direction was passing. He said that one person even pelted a stone on him and another person called the police by dialling 100.
Over 100 Interrogated, Police Yet To Crack The Case
Even after interrogating more than 100 people including family members, colleagues, and acquaintances, police are yet to find the suspect in the Swathi murder case.
On Monday, the case was transferred to the city police from the railway police. Officials are checking Swathi’s hard disks and computers used by her. The police have also released a high definition picture of the suspect from the CCTV footages on Thursday.
On Wednesday, two officers were added to the investigating team, Joint Commissioner TS Anbu and Deputy Commissioner, S Saravanan from T Nagar. Commissioner TK Rajendran also visited the railway station and supervised the case.
Police told The New Indian Express that they are also interrogating her friends from her training days in Mysuru. The police officials refused to divulge more about the case.
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