Unidentified people brutally attacked a 45-year-old freelance journalist while she was out for an evening walk at a DDA park in North-west Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area on Wednesday evening, said police.
Aparna Kalra, who has worked in several leading dailies as a business journalist, was admitted to Fortis Hospital at Shalimar Bagh, where her condition is said to be critical.
Aparna’s family said she sustained multiple fractures to her skull and is slipping in and out of consciousness. “She only repeats that ‘I was attacked’. Apart from that, Aparna’s condition is critical. She is only talking to us in monosyllables,” the family said.
Milind Dumbere, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest), said, “A case of attempt to murder has been registered at the Bharat Nagar police station against unknown persons. We are probing the case from all angles.”
Aparna’s sister Prachi Kalra told The Pioneer that the journalist was attacked barely 100 metres from their house. “She often used to go for evening walks at the nearby Picnic Hut Park in Ashok Vihar Phase III. I got a call from the local police claiming that my sister has been hurt badly and is getting treated at the Deep Chand Hospital. Doctors informed us that she was attacked with a sharp edged object like an iron rode. Police told us that one of the passersby informed them that a woman is lying in a pool of blood. Since Aparna had sustained grievous injuries, she was referred to Fortis Hospital,” she said.
Police on Thursday evening visited the park where Aparna was brutally attacked to reconstruct the exact sequence of events and spoke with people who frequent the DDA Park in the evening.
Karishma Bhuttani, a resident, said, “As there are not streetlights in the park, people, especially women, avoid it in the evening. And also there are no security guards and people from the nearby slums, including vagabonds and squatters, throng the park after 6 pm.”
Prachi said, “Fond of nursing stray dogs and puppies, my sister and I often used to take care of the street dogs in our area. So far, I am not able to understand why anyone would hurt her. She was not someone who would get aggressive. All her writings were non-political in nature. For the past one-and-a-half year, Aparna has been working as a freelancer. I don’t think that she could have been beaten for her writings.”
Aparna has worked with the Times of India, Business Standard, Financial Express and other news websites.