Around 90 women from across the country came together to  join in on an online call set up by a support group, to deal with the horrors they faced at the Savitridevi Phule Mahila Chhatralaya, the hostel at Charni Road where a 19-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered on Tuesday.  For many of them, the shared trauma stems from the fact that they knew the perpetrator because he had targeted them as well.

The police are currently conducting inquiries against Omprakash Kanojia alias Prakash, a laundry man at the hostel, who was also an unofficial security guard. The police believe he entered the victim’s room by unlocking the inside bolt through a vent above the door, forced himself on her and strangled her with her clothes. His body was found on the railway tracks and he is believed to have died by suicide 15 minutes after fleeing the hostel.