Amruta was stabbed to death on Wednesday evening near Lal Bahadur Shastri chowk, the heart of the town, in full sight of hundreds of onlookers. Worse, none of them bothered to take Amruta to hospital, after the killer, Baban Shikalgar (Rajput), walked away unchallenged.

It was 15 long minutes afterwards that a passer-by intimated Amruta's mother about the incident. The mother rushed to the spot with her younger son.

``The spot was close to the central bus stand, but none answered her cry for help,'' says the Deshpande family. A few rickshaw drivers even refused to help her, it is said.

``We all are impotent, and numbness personified,'' a furious Milind Deshpande, Amruta's uncle, said.

A similar question is however bugging Sangli superintendent of policeTukaram Chavan. ``How can people be so desensitised,'' he asks. Although the time wasted in taking Amruta to hospital must have made a difference, a section of medical community is sceptical about the chances of her being saved after being inflicted several deep cuts.

Noted medical practitioner Aniruddha Gadgil echoed the general feeling. The incident could have been averted, had any of the persons present at the spot dared to challenge the assailant, he said.