A 21-year-old woman was brutally stabbed by her neighbour who was stalking her. According to reports, the reason for the murder was found to be rejection. The woman had earlier refused to marry her neighbour due to which he committed the crime. On the busy street of TNagar’s Burkit road, R Sathyanarayanan stabbed her and tried to abscond.

Investigators arrested the 37-year-old suspect, Satyanarayanan, of Kannagi Nagar, less than two hours after the attack, reported The Times of India.

Onlookers admitted the woman, a diploma student whose name police withheld, to a hospital in the vicinity where doctors described her condition as stable.

Satyanarayanan, a pavement vendor of toys and other knickknacks at Parry’s Corner, had been stalking the woman for some time, an investigating officer said.

“Satyanarayanan was a neighbour and had been acquainted with the woman’s mother, Sumathi, for at least 11 years,” the officer said. “He frequented their house and had been pestering Sumathi to allow him to marry her daughter.”

Sumathi did not think he was a good match for her daughter, however, and was firmly opposed to the idea.

“The young woman was on her way to a study centre in T Nagar and had alighted from a bus in the locality around noon on Thursday when Satyanarayanan started to follow her,” the officer said.

“Satyanarayanan stopped her and demanded that she marry him,” the officer said. “When the woman turned down the proposal, Satyanarayana was enraged. He pulled out a knife and stabbed her multiple times in the face and neck in full public view.”