Tainted Affairs

In the last few years, crimes driven by 'Love, Sex and Dhokha' have been on a rise across Delhi-NCR. Repeated instances of such incidents occurring across the capital has sent shivers down the population. "He took out a hammer from the bag and hit me five to six times inside the hotel room," reported a woman from Delhi University (DU) while describing her boyfriend's reaction after she broke up with him.

After being arrested by South West district police, the accused claimed that he was angered after she broke up and refused to listen to his pleas.

This is only one among the many cases which prove that not all love stories come with a happy ending.

GRUESOME CRIMES

In 2018, a 26-year-old man strangulated his wife to death and chopped her body into seven pieces with the help of his brother before throwing her remains into a forested area in southeast Delhi.

On the night of June 20, accused Ali had a quarrel with his wife and then strangulated her. After committing the crime, he called his brother Ishtiyaque Alam, confessing to his actions. "Ishtiyaque joined him in chopping the body and disposing it to evade detection. After they both chopped the body, they wrapped it in a bag and put it into a carton. Later, they both informed their elder brother Hasmat Ali Ansari about the incident. The brothers wrapped the body and threw it in the forested area of Okhla," said a police officer. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Chinmoy Biswal further stated, "The accused thought if he don't chop the body they would probably get caught. To dodge the police, the accused butchered the body into pieces," said the officer.

In 2018, crime branch had arrested a criminal, identified as Dhiresh Narayan, who, in 2017, had chopped the head off another man in a fit of rage and dumped the dead body in the fields of Siraspur village. "Dhiresh suspected that Javed Ansari (deceased) was having an extramarital affair with his wife," said DCP (Crime) Joy Tirkey. He roped his friends for the act. In the intervening night of September 10 and 11, Dhiresh managed to lure Javed to an isolated spot in Siraspur and started beating him up. "Dhiresh chopped his head off with a dao (large flat blade used to cut wood) and threw it in the field," said the DCP. He too stated that the accused wanted to destroy the identity of the deceased to evade police suspicion.

In October 2017, a 31-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his co-worker, chopping off his body parts and hiding them in a refrigerator after suspecting him of having an affair with his wife.

CRIMES of OBSESSION

Last year, a 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his girlfriend in Delhi's Alipur area. Police claimed that the accused was obsessed with the victim as he had inscribed her name on his hand with a sharp object. The girl wanted to discontinue her relationship with the accused which eventually led to the murder. DCP (North) Nupur Prasad stated that the murder happened in the forested area of Alipur, where the accused dragged the girls to the bushes and strangulated her to death. He even punched her face a few times so that the body could not be identified.

In June 2018, Delhi Police arrested an Indian Army Major from Uttar Pradesh for his involvement in killing a woman with whom he was obsessed and wanted to marry. The accused was drawn towards the wife of another army major and would call her several times. Two knives were found in his car where the incident took place, indicating that he might have planned the murder in advance.

Data & Insights

Delhi Police investigators claimed that these murders are generally pre-planned. Though, there are some cases where the murder occurred in a sudden fit of rage.

Dr Nand Kumar, Professor of Psychiatry, AIIMS, stated, "It all depends on the cognitive flexibility of a person's brain and coping mechanism from an acute unexpected stressful situation arising from illicit relationships or betrayal."

According to Delhi Police, in 2018, as many as 513 murders were reported in which "passion" related killings accounted for 11 per cent. In 2017, there were 487 reported murder cases – 9.74 per cent owing to passion.

Crimes of passion include illicit affairs, betrayal, obsession or love affairs. In 2016, as many as 528 murders were reported in the city out of which 13 per cent were passion-driven, whereas in 2014, around 10.87 per cent out of 586 murders accounted for the same. "In 2015, 9.61 per cent murders were related to sexual indulgences," said Delhi Police data.

"The woman was crying but there was no one in the coach. When the train reached another station, the accused hid the body in such a manner that no one could see," an investigator said. After confirming that she was dead, he threw the evidence and travelled with the body for more than one kilometre and later, fled from the train. The deceased's body was recovered from Old Delhi railway station and remained unidentified for several days.

The above report was a part of an interrogation of Abdul Hakim Ansari who strangled his wife to death inside a moving train in 2018. The accused later lodged a missing complaint of his wife and started a fake search for her.

"He was confident that the police had closed the case. The accused went to Old Delhi police station carrying a photo of his wife. He showed the photo which surprisingly turned out to be one of the bodies under police custody," said DCP (Railway) Dinesh Kumar Gupta, adding that upon further investigation, police arrested the accused.

Police claimed that his married life was not going well and there were many issues, owing to which he was frustrated and wanted to get rid of his wife.

According to Dr Kumar, after a person comes to know about any betrayal or illicit affair, the brain intends to first deny the incident, where the person cannot accept what he or she has witnessed or overheard.

"There is sudden agitation or anger (due to the sudden collective firing of a brain cell or neurons in the certain area of the brain associated with emotions) which can happen subsequently or sometimes when the brain stops thinking about the consequences and commits the incident," said Dr Kumar. Later, the person develops guilt related to the incident and accepts it.

Online harassment

A 20-year-old DU student who was harassing another woman through a fake Facebook account was arrested from Shahdara district. The investigating agency stated that the accused had been sending her morphed pornographic photographs along with vulgar messages. The complainant said that the alleged person was also threatening to rape her. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Meghna Yadav stated that the accused was identified as Deevakar Shakya. On August 16, the complainant, a resident of Geeta Colony, told police that someone had created a fake Facebook account using her name and photograph. The user of the fake profile was sending her morphed vulgar photographs using her pornographic photographs along with vulgar messages. The arrest was made by the cyber unit of Shahdara district.

The need of the hour for every citizen of the country is to be aware of their role in ensuring personal safety along with safeguarding the security of society at large.