A 21-year-old college student who suffered at least seven stab wounds near her Survey Park home on Tuesday is recuperating from her injuries and is stable, said officials of the hospital where she is admitted.
The woman, who is in the second year of a college in central Kolkata, was attacked by a man she had known for years, police said.
“The accused — Jayanta Tanti, 25, who was arrested from the spot — has said he was apprehensive that the student would not continue their relationship because of a defect he has in one of his legs. He thought she was into a relationship with someone else,” said an officer of Survey Park police station.
Tanti had allegedly called her near a pond at the Nilpukur ground on Tuesday morning and attacked her with a knife. The woman was stabbed at random. A traffic sergeant of East Jadavpur traffic guard spotted the man attacking the woman and rescued her.
The police said Tanti had tried to drag the woman into the pond and drown her, but she was rescued after the sergeant intervened. Tanti was arrested from the spot and the woman was taken to Peerless Hospital. Officials at Peerless Hospital said the woman had suffered multiple stab wounds and was in deep trauma when she was taken to the hospital. “All her wounds had to be stitched. Luckily, all the injuries are superficial incisions,” an official at the hospital said.
The woman had three cut injuries on her neck, two injuries on her abdomen, one slicing cut injury on her chest and a deep cut on her left arm, hospital officials said.
“From the pattern of the wounds, it is clear that Tanti was extremely angry at the time of the attack. But the knife had hit the woman in a horizontal way without causing deep injuries,” said an officer of the east division of Kolkata police.
Tanti, who works in a crab processing unit in Kolkata, had met the woman through a family connection with her father, who is involved in the same work. Tanti has admitted to the crime, the police said. “He appears to be apologetic and said he attacked the woman in a fit of rage because he was insecure about her,” said an officer who has questioned Tanti.
The deputy commissioner, east, Kolkata police, Arish Bilal, said Tanti was produced in court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till June 28.