Male breadwinners top the list of murder victims in Ludhiana

Dispute due to multiple reasons was the primary cause behind the 56 murders in Ludhiana, accounting for 44.6% (25) of the tally

Men aged between 30 and 60, who were mostly the breadwinners of their families, comprised 35% of the 56 murder victims across Ludhiana district last year.

In all, the district witnessed murders of 37 men (66%), as compared to 19 women (34%), the latest report of the National Crime Record Bureau reveals.

These included 20 men aged between 30 and 60 – 11 in the age group of 30 to 45 and nine aged between 45 and 60.

The second most-vulnerable age group in men was between 18 and 30 that constituted 25% (14) of the victims – the highest number in all age categories.

The trend was similar among females, with those between 18 and 45 years comprising 12 of the 19 victims, eight of them aged 30 to 45. The number of female victims in the age group of 45 and 60 was three.

Two male senior citizens were also murdered, besides five children aged below 16, including four females. Among them, three kids were below six years of age, while two girls were teenagers.

Across Punjab, 706 murders were reported in 2019, of which 502 (71%) were male and 204 (28.9%) female. Here, the age group of 30 to 45 comprised the most victims at 254, out of which 182 were men.

As many as 47 juveniles were murdered in Punjab, of which 25 were females.

DISPUTE LEADING CAUSE

Dispute due to multiple reasons was the primary cause behind the 56 murders in Ludhiana, accounting for 44.6% (25) of the tally.

As per the bureau’s report, there were 53 murders in 2018 and 56 in the subsequent year – a 5% spike in cases. 2017 saw the highest murders (59) among the three years.

Infidelity was the second leading reason behind the murders in the city. As many as 10 residents were killed as a fallout of illicit relations. In six cases, the motive behind the murders was not found, while two women were murdered by their husbands or in-laws over dowry. In Punjab, three dowry deaths were reported in 2019, out of which two cases were reported in Ludhiana.