Sources in the Delhi Police say that most of the murders reported from Delhi are due to personal enmity
The national capital is witnessing an increasing trend of heinous crime and murder over the last couple of months, many of which are viral on social media, raising questions over the law-and-order situation in Delhi. In the last two months (May and June), the city of Delhi has witnessed at least 20 gruesome murders.
According to The Sunday Guardian’s research after going through multiple news reports, Delhi has witnessed more than 20 cases of murder between May and 22 June, most of which involved stabbing and shootouts.
In May alone, Delhi witnessed more than 11 incidents of murder and in June (till 22 June), Delhi recorded at least 10 cases of murder. Last week alone, at least three murders have rocked the national capital. In one incident, a 19-year-old Nikhil Chouhan, a student from Delhi University’s Aryabhata College, was beaten and stabbed to death by a group of students outside his college, near the South Campus of Delhi University. Nikhil Chouhan was killed after an altercation broke out between the Nikhil and the group of students over his girlfriend.
The police, however, arrested at least three suspects in the case and an investigation of murder is underway. In another incident, also reported earlier this week from Delhi, a 72-year-old woman was brutally stabbed 50 times, possibly using ice picks that killed her. According to police investigation, she was stabbed and killed in broad daylight outside the clinic of her son in East Delhi’s Mandawali by three assailants. The police suspects that she was killed due to personal enmity and likely over property dispute.
In another shocking incident of murder, again, earlier this week, two sisters, 30- and 29-year-olds, were shot dead by assailants while they were trying to save their brother from attackers who were beating their brother up. This incident was reported from Delhi’s posh RK Puram locality in the wee hours of Sunday.
The gruesome murder of a 16-year-old girl by her 20-year-old boyfriend at the Shahabad Dairy area of Delhi on 29 May also rocked the national capital. The jilted lover had stabbed the girl more than 15 times, after beating her up mercilessly and all this was captured in a CCTV camera in the surrounding area.
Accused Sahil Khan was later arrested by Delhi Police from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandsaher. Several others were stabbed and shot dead during this period, raising serious questions about the law and order situation in Delhi and also about the lack of fear of the police force and law in the national capital.
Sources in the Delhi Police say that most of the murders reported from Delhi are due to personal enmity and that it is impossible for the police to be present everywhere at all the time. “These murders that have been happening in Delhi are mostly cases of personal enmity and that the victim and the accused are known. It is not possible to post constables on every street and corner of the city, it is humanly not possible. Delhi Police is regularly conducting patrolling across the city. PCR response time has also considerably improved. Now what is going on in someone’s head and if some murders are taking place due to personal rage, in this, what will the police do? We can, of course, take action and bring the culprits to book and this is what we are doing. In almost all the cases, the police have arrested the accused,” a senior Delhi Police officer told The Sunday Guardian.
The Sunday Guardian also sought an official reply from the Delhi Police on the measures the Delhi Police have been taking to ensure that such incidents of murder and heinous crimes come down in the capital. However, this newspaper did not receive a reply from the Delhi Police’s PRO department till the time of going to press.
However, civil society and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party have also raised questions about the deteriorating law and order problem of Delhi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has earlier last week requested the Delhi Lieutenant Governor to take up the matter with the Delhi Police Commissioner
Sanjay Arora.