Bengaluru: A jilted lover stalked, confronted, chased and stabbed a woman, all on a busy city street on Monday afternoon, as aghast passersby looked on. Later the attacker stabbed himself too. The horrific crime of passion played out in minutes on 4th C Main Road, OMBR Layout, Ramamurthy Nagar in east Bengaluru. The attacker was 30-year-old gym instructor Steven Antony and the victim, Manjula Harsha, a 27-year-old homemaker. Manjula was on her way to pick up her son from nursery school when she was brutally attacked.
Both are in hospital, with Antony’s condition said to be critical. According to police, an extramarital affair between the two went sour, climaxing in Monday’s high drama.
Around 12.45pm, Manjula was on her moped, riding to pick up her four-year-old son from kindergarten. Unknown to her, Antony was tailing her on his bike, carrying a dagger and determined to kill Manjula after their recent split.
Antony accosted Manjula and they had a heated argument before he pulled out the dagger. Horror-stricken, Manjula dropped her moped and ran towards a nearby house for shelter.
She, however, couldn’t get too far. Just as she reached the gate of one house, she was struck below her neck. Antony swung the dagger at her, slashing her face and hand. She collapsed at the gate. As passersby rushed towards them, Antony plunged the dagger into his throat.
An eyewitness Raju, the complainant in the case, said the two were quarrelling by the roadside. “Before passersby could separate the two, the man brandished a dagger. The woman began fleeing. She ran towards the compound of a house but was trapped as the man blocked the entrance and stabbed her brutally. By the time we reached them, the man was also lying in a pool of blood with a stab wound in the neck,” he recounted.
People rushed both of them to a nearby hospital, from where Antony was shifted to Bowring Hospital because of deep wounds. Police said Manjula is out of danger, while Antony is critical.
Anatomy of an affair
Sources said Manjula and Antony met each other at the latter’s gym in Ramamurthy Nagar where she had enrolled. Police visited Antony’s gym in the area and were told the two became close and began having an affair. Manjula, a resident of Ramamurthy Nagar, later had a fallout with Antony and stopped meeting him. Despite several attempts, Antony couldn’t convince her to get back to him. That’s when he decided to take revenge, police said. Manjula’s husband is a private firm employee. They have been married for six years and have a son.
