A jilted lover struck 18 blows on the head of his girlfriend on a road in Vasai on Friday, even as scores of people watched the gory spectacle, police said.

“The accused attacked the woman with an industrial spanner. There were 18 wounds on her body,” senior inspector Jairaj Ranawre of Valiv police station said.

The man, Rohit Yadav (32) and the woman Arati Yadav (22) were neighbours and in a relationship for the last few years, police said. Of late, she had stopped contact with him, making him to suspect that she was having an affair with someone else.

“Kyun kiya aisa mere saath (why did you do this to me),” the man kept saying as continued to hit her head with the spanner. Except for a person who ventured out to intervene, the scores of bystanders remained mute spectators.

The video footage shows a large crowd watching the attack, but no one intervened to help the woman as the man rained blows on her with the spanner, police said.

The Valiv police have registered a murder case, apprehended the accused, and are currently investigating the incident further.

A video of the attack that took place around 8.30 am in the Chinchpada locality of Vasai surfaced on social media.

The victim and the man lived in the same neighbourhood in Nalla Sopara, and worked at an industrial estate, police said.

She was on her way to work with the assailant when they quarrelled midway, an official said.

The man continued to attack her even after she collapsed on the ground. He did not flee the scene and sat on the steps near the body, the official said.

A team from the Valiv police rushed to the spot and sent the body for a post-mortem.

Police have detained a man and a woman who shot videos of the attack and uploaded them on social media.

CCTV footage of the incident went viral on social media, prompting indignation from the public and people’s representatives.

Maharashtra Legislative Council deputy chairperson Neelam Gorhe said there is a need to implement the “zero tolerance for crimes against women” policy.

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