Experts fear ‘new era of brutality’ as heinous killings rise
New Delhi (IANS). A disturbing pattern has emerged in the series of crimes that have shocked the nation. The initial jolt came from the high-profile case of Shraddha Walker’s murder by Aftab Poonawalla. However, as new cases surfaced one after the other, a sinister trend of murder and dismemberment began to take shape.
More similar cases have come to the fore, leaving authorities and the public grappling with the question of whether this was just a coincidence or the sinister beginning of a new trend of murder in the country.
In November last year, Aftab was arrested for allegedly killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walker and dismembering her body in Delhi’s Chhatarpur area. Aftab was in a relationship with Shraddha since 2018, but he strangled her on May 18 after a fight between them. He chopped her body into several pieces and dumped it at various places before being arrested six months after the crime.
Both were living in live-in since 2019 and shifted to Delhi on 8 May 2022. They stayed in a hotel in Paharganj for seven days and then moved to a rented house on May 15, just three days before Shraddha’s murder.
Reminding us of the heinous crime committed by Aftab, another horrifying incident came to light in East Delhi’s Pandav Nagar just 12 days later. In this case, a man became a victim of cruelty by his wife and son from his previous marriage. The criminals allegedly drugged the man, stabbed him and slit his throat.
The next day, the body was cut into more than 22 pieces and placed in a refrigerator. According to the police, the body parts were dumped at various places over the next few days.
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police made a significant breakthrough by solving the mystery of scattered body parts found at a dumping ground in Pandav Nagar in June 2022.
Police arrested Poonam (48) and her son Deepak (25) in connection with this heinous crime. Special Commissioner (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav revealed that the recovered body parts belonged to Poonam’s 52-year-old husband Anjan Das.
Recently, another case came to light in Lalbagh area of Mumbai. The accused, 23-year-old Rimple Jain, was arrested by the Kalachowki police for the brutal murder of her own mother, 55-year-old Veena Prakash Jain. Rimple’s actions were unspeakably horrific, as he not only took his mother’s life but also dismembered her body.
To hide his heinous act, he hid the organs in a water drum in the bathroom, while hiding the torso in a cupboard. Relying on spray perfume and room freshener, she tried to mask the putrid odor that befell her crime, while the remains remained hidden for months.
In the early days of March 2023, the public was shocked by yet another heart-wrenching incident in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Pawan Singh committed the act of unspeakable violence, driven by suspicion of his wife Sati Sahu’s alleged extramarital affair.
He dismembered his wife’s body with a tile cutter and dumped the remains in a water tank, hoping to bury the truth of his crime. However, luck was not on his side, and the police indirectly found incriminating evidence, which led to the discovery of the mystery.
A similar horror story unfolded in central Kashmir’s Budgam district when a man named Shabbir Ahmed Wani killed a young girl, who had earlier rejected his marriage proposal. Fueled by anger and rejection, he cuts her body into pieces, leaving the community in shock.
These incidents, while appalling, are just glimpses of a disturbing trend that has created panic and fear among the public.
Observers closely following such cases from late 2022 and early 2023 have dubbed this a “body-cutting trend”. The widespread use of the term is indicative of the appalling effect these cases have had on the collective psyche of the public.
Many are left to wonder whether this horrific spate of killings will ever stop or whether it is just the beginning of an even darker era of brutality.
The search for answers continues, as citizens, law enforcement agencies and officials face the urgent challenge of tackling this growing menace and ensuring the safety of people.
