Psychopath on the loose in Mumbai, attacks single women

A psychopath has been on the prowl in Mumbai for years and he has been picking women at random, attacking them with rods and blades. Yesterday, he struck again at the area near Mithibai College in Vile Parle and slashed the hands of a 20-year-old call centre employee with a kitchen knife around the same spot. Ali, who is 30 years old, fled after attacking the woman and was caught by locals and a Juhu police patrolling team opposite Nanavati Hospital after a nearly 2-km-long chase.

The woman, who was attacked so badly that chunks of flesh were ripped out of her hands, is being treated at KEM hospital. Her condition is said to be stable. While Ali later told the police that he was in love with the woman and had been jilted by her, the woman said she did not know Ali and had never even met him.The woman had left for her job around 8.30 am when Ali, who works at a restaurant on the same road, saw her. He went inside the restaurant, took a kitchen knife and ran towards the woman, say Juhu police.

The woman was walking and Ali asked her to stop.He began slashing her with the kitchen knife, then caught hold of her hands and cut them several more times. "The shocked woman called out for help, but there were fewer people around because it was a Sunday. When a crowd began to gather, Ali fled the spot."

Patrolling policemen were alerted and some people and the policemen chased the culprit nearly 2 kms and managed to nab him at a lane opposite Nanavati hospital, said an officer from the Juhu police. According to the police, Ali is mentally unstable and has been attacking women at random for years. They said he lives in the Nehru Nagar slums near Mithibai College and thus, targets women in that one road.

"Before he attacked Gupte, he had attacked another girl with a rod in 2010. He is a psycho. He claims he was in love with the woman and that she had turned down his proposal, but she says she has never met him. He was married and had two kids, but his wife had left him before the 2010 incident due to his mental illness," said another officer.

In 2010, Siraj Ali Bachchu Ali, who is reportedly mentally unstable, had hit 16-year-old Payal Gupte, a distant relative of the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, with a rod on her head and back outside the college. He had been sentenced to six months in prison. We hadn't heard of him attacking anybody since then, say police. Ali has been booked under section 307 (Attempt to murder) of the IPC.