Girl dies in machete attack by estranged boyfriend, outrage on

Guwahati/ Lakhimpur: Anguish and outrage poured in from across Assam on Thursday after a college student succumbed to injuries in a machete attack by her estranged boyfriend, who was a non-teaching staff at her college. Nandita Saikia, a BA student at Moridhal College in Dhemaji district, was attacked by Rintu Sharma while she was returning home from her college on Saturday, police said. Saikia's friend and the friend's father were also injured in the attack, they said.

Saikia, a resident of Dhakuakhana in Lakhimpur, was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Dibrugarh where she died on Wednesday evening, police said.

In a purported video shot after the attack, Sharma was seen with a machete, claiming that Saikia and her family "spoiled my life despite doing everything for her". He was arrested by the police immediately after the crime along with the weapon.

Students of Moridhal College said that they were in an affair for some time, but Saikia was wanting to break up for reasons known to them. This, angered Sharma, who was a grade four staff at Moridhal College, and he tried for some time to convince her not to leave him, they said. As the news of her death broke, people took to social media, expressing their anguish, while many outfits hit the roads demanding "extreme punishment" for the accused.

"Anguished to learn about the demise of Nandita Saikia, who was undergoing treatment after a heinous attack on her. My deepest condolences to her family and friends. In this hour of grief, I stand in solidarity with her family members," state minister Atul Bora tweeted.

Expressing his sadness, BJP Lok Sabha MP PradanBaruah said Saikia was the victim of extreme cruelty and there should not be recurrence of such atrocities. Rajya Sabha MP Bhuyan said, "Anguished by the act of the perpetrator, urge the administration to take necessary steps to provide exemplary punishment to the accused."