Spurned lovers behind 35% murders in Delhi

Over one third of all murders that take place in Delhi are committed over failed love affairs. Faizan Haidar reports.

Over one third of all murders that take place in Delhi are committed over failed love affairs.

Crimes of passion, as they are called by the police, have registered an increasing trend with women being the victims in the maximum number of cases.

Be it the serial killing in southwest Delhi's Bindapur and Ghaziabad by a man who later killed himself, shooting by two men in Swaroop Nagar, murder of a senior citizen in Neb Sarai or the murder of a doctor in New Rajender Nagar last year, the reason in all the cases was same - failed love affairs, said a police officer.

"These all are senseless killings and the accused had a failed relationship with the victim. While in JNU, other students sitting in the classroom escaped, in many cases we have noticed that the killer went on to kill onlookers as well. In Rajendra Nagar last year, a senior doctor who had come out after hearing the commotion was killed by a jilted lover," said a senior police officer.

While some of these crimes appear to be premeditated, most of them take place in the spur of the moment.

However, the police classify all such crimes as murder due to sudden provocation because as per the law there is no specific category for crimes of passion.

In Bindapur, a man killed a woman he was having an affair with, her husband, their landlord and then went to Ghaziabad where he killed the woman's sister and their father before killing himself. "The murder was triggered by the girl's father's refusal to marry off his younger daughter with the killer. The reason in majority of the cases is similar," the officer said.

The easy availability of firearms and sharp-edged weapons makes it easier for people such motives to execute their plans easily.