New Delhi, March 8: A 20-year-old student was shot dead this morning while walking to college in south Delhi, allegedly by a man who had been stalking her for four months and whom she had rebuffed on Valentine’s Day.

No one in Shantiniketan near Dhaula Kuan, an upscale neighbourhood where six colleges are located, saw the man attack Radhika Tanwar just 200 metres from Ramlal Anand College at 10.30am, police said.

“The bullet hit Radhika on her back and she immediately collapsed near the ramp of the footbridge, bleeding from her abdomen. Some locals rushed her to the nearby Safdarjung Hospital on an autorickshaw where she was declared brought dead,” a senior police officer said.

A college friend walking with Radhika on the footbridge ran after the assailant but he got away, a teacher said.

“His (the friend’s) name is Aditya and he is a student of our college. He tried to chase down the assailant but he managed to run away. Police are questioning Aditya to help draw a sketch of the attacker,” said Raj Kaw, an associate professor of Ramlal Anand College, where Radhika was a second-year BA student.

Kaw described Radhika as a good student.

The area was crowded but a senior police officer said they were yet to come across an eyewitness. “It’s strange nobody saw him shooting from behind. We have got hold of a person who claimed that he saw the assailant fleeing but could not see his face. Our officers are trying to find an eyewitness,” he said.

A local trader said people did not want to come forward fearing police harassment.

Sinta Sunny, a student of the nearby Jesus and Mary College who crossed the same footbridge at 9.30am, said: “Senior police officers always claim that a large number of cops are posted around the area as so many colleges are located here. But where were they today?”

“There are so many colleges nearby but police have not done anything despite rising crimes against women here. It’s so scary as hundreds of students use the footbridge everyday to go to college,” she further said.

At Safdarjung hospital, Radhika’s father was crying inconsolably. “I do not know who killed my daughter. She had no enemies,” sobbed Rajender Singh, a property dealer.

Radhika’s friends told the police that a man who had been stalking her for months had proposed to her on Valentine’s Day. The second-year BA student turned him away, telling him to “mind his business”.

“It was a cold-blooded murder and the assailant targeted the girl with a clear motive to kill her. The attacker appeared to be known to the victim and was stalking her for the past few months,” said H.G.S Dhaliwal, DCP south.

Younger brother Vipin said his sister “left home to go to college at 9.10am. She never disclosed to us that somebody was following her. We have lost her forever….”

The family lives at Naraina, about 6km from Dhaula Kuan. Girija Vyas, the National Commission for Women chairperson, condemned the murder that coincided with the International Women’s Day. “Why such incidents are recurring?” she asked.

According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau report, Delhi is the most unsafe city for women in the country. A number of MPs raised the question of crime against women in Parliament on the occasion of Women’s Day today and said home minister P. Chidambaram should take the blame since Delhi police reports to him. Chidambaram accepted that crime against women was a serious issue but added that the number of incidents has declined over the past few months. A large number of girl students from Delhi University’s south campus, located not far from where Radhika was shot, blocked Ring Road today in protest against the lack of security for students.

In November last year, a Mizo girl working for a call centre was intercepted in Dhaula Kuan by four men who forced her into a mini-truck and raped her. In May 2005, a Delhi University student also from Mizoram was abducted and raped in a car.

Since several colleges are located in the vicinity, hundreds of students from all over India live in and around Dhaula Kuan.