‘Delhi witnesses one murder every two days’

NEW DELHI: Almost every day, some or the other news of murder emerges from the national capital, raising questions about the law-and-order situation in Delhi. According to data analysed by The Sunday Guardian, the national capital of Delhi has reported over 25 incidents of murder in the last 50 days, which reveals that every two days, someone is killed in Delhi.
In the first 22 days of July, 15 cases of murder have been reported from across all districts od Delhi, while in the month of June, 10 such cases have been reported. According to analysis by The Sunday Guardian, of all the murder cases reported from Delhi in the last 50 days, it has come to the fore that most cases are the result of personal enmity, quarrels and road rage. Some of these sensational murder cases were also caught on CCTV cameras and were widely circulated on social media.
Between 17-22 July, at least five cases of murder have been reported, most of which have been due to petty issues of quarrel or road rage. For example, a 32-year-old man was beaten to death over a brawl that broke out at the parking site of Saket Metro station earlier this week in South Delhi. Eyewitnesses say that Rohit, the victim, was beaten up by a group of 5 to 6 men with bricks and stones and his only fault was that he honked towards the group of men as he wanted to park his car near the Metro station.
In another incident reported from Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar (North East District), a 23-year-old man, Abhishek, was shot dead by his friend on the intervening night of 16-17 July after an altercation broke out between the two friends and the other “got agitated” and shot Abhishek, who succumbed to his injuries. In another incident reported earlier this week from South Delhi, a 66-year-old woman (Murti Devi) and her 22-year-old grandson (Karan) were beaten and stabbed to death with a knife in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi. This happened because the duo protested with a group of four young men who were hurling abuses and creating a ruckus outside their house around midnight.
Incidents of minors being involved in such killing due to rage and revenge have also come to the fore. In at least three incidents, minor boys were involved in the killing due to rage or personal enmity. In an incident reported from Delhi’s Vishwas Nagar earlier this month, a 17-year-old drunk minor boy killed a 73-year-old man as he was agitated by the fact that the old man was “abusing” him for being drunk in the morning. This incident was captured on CCTV and was circulated on social media.
Another incident of murder where minors were involved was reported from South Delhi’s Ambedkar Nagar police station. In this case, two minors have been accused of stabbing to death a footwear seller as part of “revenge” killing. According to police, the two minors were slapped by the victim Manish almost a month ago of the incident and later, the two minor boys came back to take revenge from the footwear seller and called him out of his shop and stabbed him with a knife, where the victim succumbed to his injuries and was declared brought dead when he was taken to the nearby Max Hospital in Saket.
In some cases of estranged husband-wife relations, killing due to “extra-marital” affairs have also been reported from the city. For example, a 30-year-old woman was killed by her husband for allegedly having an affair with her friend, while in another incident from West Delhi’s Paschim Vihar, a woman and her son killed her husband as the husband was unemployed for a long time and was not being able to provide for their financial needs.
Police sources say that rage and revenge killings in Delhi have gone up in the last couple of months and due to this, incidents of murder and “accidental” killings are also being reported quite often from the national capital.
“The youths of Delhi are very hot-blooded and it has come to notice that an argument leading to a physical fight breaks out in Delhi at the drop of a hat. It is very difficult for the police to be present at every place all the time. Most of the cases you see are due to personal rivalry, quarrels and fights or even domestic issues and in such cases, you cannot say that the law and order situation in Delhi is deteriorating,” a senior police officer of Delhi Police told this correspondent.
Another police officer from the Delhi Police said: “The youths today are enraged since they do not have jobs and the rising cost of living and the growing inequality between the rich and poor are creating a sort of mental outburst among the younger generation of Delhi, who then pick up fights easily and in turn kill people.”
The Sunday Guardian also reached out to Delhi Police PRO and DCP Suman Nalwa for a response to the rising cases of murders in Delhi and the steps being taken by Delhi Police to ensure that the fear of law is instilled in Delhi residents. However, this newspaper did not receive any response till the time of going to press.
The Sunday Guardian also reached out to the office of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for a response on increasing crime in the national capital, but did not elicit any response till the time of going to the press.