Three particularly shocking incidents last month brought the ominous foreboding that 1996 would only reconfirm Delhi's status as the city women fear most to tread. On January 23, Priyadarshini Mattoo, 24, was murdered inside her flat in south-west Delhi's sprawling Vasant Kunj. A university student, she had a personal security officer provided by the police because the family had complained that a man was following her each time she stepped out of her house. What is even more shocking is that the gruesome crime was committed by the son of an additional commissioner of police. "What's this place coming to? Will every young woman in this city need a policeman to shadow her around all the time? And even then, they get killed," said an agitated neighbour giving vent to the mounting outrage against the uncontrollable spurt in crimes against women.