Highland Park, a quiet suburb of Auckland, attracted the headlines last week with the brutal murder of Titiksha Uday Desai. A man named Uday Krishnakant Desai appeared in the Manukau District Court charged with her murder.
Reports claim that neighbours responded to the screams of the victim for help and rushed to the scene only to find her bleeding profusely. Her throat was slit, the gash almost reaching the neck. She succumbed to her injuries before the ambulance arrived. However, the neighbours were able to restrain her attacker until the arrival of the police.
Court records indicated that Uday Krishnakant Desai lived in Brisbane and is now in Police custody. He is expected to re-appear in court next month.
Titiksha was a librarian at the Pakuranga Public Library and was known to many visitors as a friendly and helpful person.
“She would always smile and ask you whether she could be of help and assist people in either finding the books they needed or suggest that they reserve the titles. It is a pity that she had to die a violent death,” a frequent visitor to the Library said.
In another gruesome murder case, Justice Timothy Brewer of the Rotorua Court sentenced 24-year-old Deepak Nagpal to 20 years in prison (on February 18) for the murder of Ravneet Sangha and her two-year-old daughter Anna.
The Court heard that Deepak stabbed Ravneet with a knife more than hundred times and her daughter Anna ten times, before putting the toddler’s body in a washing machine in their home in Tauranga. Ravneet’s body was found two days after the incident and Anna’s body was discovered 24 later.
Deepak lived with the Sangha family before the attack.
The brutality of these murders defies imagination. In all the three cases, the victims were women.
Women seem to have become vulnerable members of our society and they need to be protected. Anger is no justification for such excesses, as in their aftermath, the ripples impact adversely on the immediate family, the extended family and the community. It is the right of the Creator to give and take life in accordance with His right and will. It is not for us to usurp that power and commit murder.
Indeed, the perpetrators of such crimes, in a momentary fit of fury, lose it all – they live to suffer for the rest of their lives. Such inhuman acts of violence need to be contained and they can only be contained when love, forgiveness, tolerance and understanding replace the crude elements of anger, malice and hatred.
As an immigrant community, it is vital that we lift our image as a law abiding, compassionate and caring community.
In each one of us the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi must be allowed to flame. It will help us to be better citizens of this beautiful country.
