Female Belgian embassy staff member murdered in Delhi
(AFP)
24 September 2006
NEW DELHI - A Belgian embassy employee in India died after being stabbed 22 times but survived long enough to call her son after an argument with her driver turned violent, police said Sunday.
The woman, 45, was identified by police and embassy officials as Isabelle Dessoy, New Delhi deputy police commissioner R.S. Yadav told reporters.
Yadav disputed an earlier Press Trust of India report that Dessoy was 35 and that the driver was in custody.
Dessoy was taken to hospital from her home, where the attack took place on Saturday evening, after she had called her teenage son who was not at home at the time to tell him she had been stabbed, the police official said.
The United News of India said Dessoy was taken to the hospital by her son where she was declared dead, but police declined to confirm the report.
Yadav identified Dessoy’s personal driver by one name, Vijay, and said the man appeared to have escaped with the victim’s silver-colored hatchback car.
“We are raiding various localities in New Delhi as he is the key suspect and we have also alerted neighbouring states and flashed the (registration) numbers of the vehicle to our check posts,” said Yadav.
Police said Dessoy had fought with Vijay on the day she died from 22 stab wounds.
“The two were in the house, the driver and the deceased lady. They had a fight and he stabbed her,” said Yadav.
A Belgian embassy employee, speaking on television, said that Dessoy worked as secretary to the ambassador.
“She was not a full-fledged diplomat. She was on contract for the ministry of foreign affairs,” the official told reporters at Dessoy’s residence.
Five other people, including domestic help and security guards outside the double-storied house, were detained by the police.
A 35-year-old Swiss diplomat was raped in her hijacked car in October 2003 just after she left the venue of an international film festival in the heart of the Indian capital.
With more than 600 rapes and around 350 murders a year in New Delhi, the National Crime Records Bureau in August ranked the capital as India’s most dangerous city for women.
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