Combating fatal attraction

As a crime against women, stalking needs to be taken more seriously. A vicious murder in which a woman was stabbed 30 times underlines this. About 20

On September 20, a 21-year-old Karuna was stabbed 30 times by her stalker in broad daylight in North Delhi’s Burari. The married man was in love with the young woman and the trigger for the alleged attack was the revelation that she was in love with someone else.

‘Stalking’ is a less talked about than crime against women like rape and molestation. This incident brought home its seriousness.

 ‘Stalking’ was added as an offence in the Indian Penal Code as Section 354D in 2013, following the widespread anger after the Nirbhaya rape and murder case. The offence is punishable by imprisonment of up to three years and a fine. If someone repeats the offence, he would be liable for imprisonment up to five years and a fine.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data says last year, 1,124 cases of stalking were registered in Delhi, as against 541 in 2014, accounting for 18% of all stalking cases in the country. Delhi Police’s data shows that this year the figure has already reached 670.

The NCRB data says that most victims were in the age group of 18-30, and in 90 per cent of the cases, the accused were known to the victims.

Delhi ranks second among Indian states in terms of number of stalking cases registered, second only to Maharashtra where 1,399 such cases were registered.

Considering the high number of stalking cases in the capital, an anti-stalking helpline was started by Delhi Police few years back.

The helpline gets around thousands of calls every year, with maximum complaints being about obscene telephone calls.

“With technology, a stalker doesn’t need to physically follow his victim anymore. He can do so through phone and internet,” says Sundari Nanda, Special Commissioner of Police (Women safety, Airport and Modernisation).

“In obscene calls cases, we generally make a cop talk to the stalker on phone. In his gruff, intimidating, and typical Delhi accent, the cop warns the accused of not calling the victim again,” Nanda adds.

The anti-stalking helpline 1096 employs a dedicated team of five operators, including three women.

“The number never gets busy and after listening to the complaint, our operators promptly transfer the call to the concerned police stations,” says a senior police officer attached with the helpline.

All duty officers and station house officers (SHOs) have been instructed to take stalking calls on a priority basis, police say.

In physical stalking cases, role of the nodal officers (an assistant commissioner of police or an inspector-level officer) of the concerned area comes in. However, in cases of cyber stalking, the situation is much more complex.

“In internet stalking, it’s difficult to ascertain the identity of the accused as in most of the cases they don’t reveal their true identity to the victims,” says an officer from Delhi
Police’s Cyber Cell.

In cases of stalking through Facebook, police officers say during investigation, getting relevant information from Facebook is an uphill task.

“Facebook is a US-based company governed by the US laws. Facebook India doesn’t always have all the information in such cases, so we have to approach the parent company via US Department of Justice,” says Nanda.

“The interaction happens through letters rogatory (formal court requests) and takes lot of time, resulting in the case dragging for months,” Nanda adds.

The biggest problem which the investigators encounter is retrieving the Facebook chats.
“We have to rely on Facebook authorities to get the chats from the stalker’s profile. Even if the victim shows us chats of her profile, we have seen that people have started using certain softwares which hide the IP address of the computer which they used for chatting with the victim,” says a police investigator.

To train their staff in cyber investigation, Delhi Police have started various training and refresher programmes.

American help

In one such programme last week, experts from the United States, including officers from the Florida state police came to Delhi for a workshop organised by Delhi Police’s Special Police Unit for Women and Children.

Apart from explaining the various techniques employed by them to track and prosecute cyber criminals to their Indian counterparts, the US officials also agreed to share technology with Delhi Police to help them nab cyber criminals and stalkers.

“Soon US officials will share with us software which will help us track online predators by leading us to the IP address quickly,” says a senior police officer.

Sundari Nanda says: “The issue is much more complex than just a matter of law and order. Society is changing rapidly and with the economic growth, more and more women are coming out of their houses and working outside for a living.”

“These girls and women come from different parts of the country to work in a metro like Delhi. But in Delhi also there are several pockets where women don’t feel safe. There are Metro trains, but limited last-mile connectivity. They have to take autos, and sometimes walk through secluded lanes making themselves vulnerable.”

“Girls who live in paying guest accommodation complain of being stared at by the landlords. The change is empowering the women on the one hand and disturbing the age-old mindset and system on the other. Crime against women to some extent is a manifestation of it,” she says.

When stalking kills

Sep 20, 2016: A 21-year old teacher Karuna Kumar was stabbed to death by
her spurned lover in broad daylight in north Delhi’s Burari

Sep 18, 2016: A man stalking a 32-year-old married woman, Lakshmi, stabbed her multiple times in southwest Delhi’s Inderpuri. She had turned down his
marriage proposal.

Aug 29, 2016: A 20-year-old girl was set afire by her stalker in north Delhi’s Mukundpur after she refused to marry him. The man lived near her house and followed her everywhere. He went to the girl’s house one day and started beating her family members for not accepting his proposal. When the girl retaliated, he allegedly poured
kerosene on her and set her on fire.

July 18, 2015: A 19-year-old from Anand Parbat was stabbed to death allegedly by a man she had accused of stalking.

May, 11, 2012: Harassment by a stalker pushed a 19-year-old beautician from Vasant Kunj to suicide.

Before dying, she allegedly told her sister that she had been humiliated in public.

March, 8, 2011: A DU student was shot outside her college in South campus. The killer, identified as a mentally unstable man, told police he knew the woman’s route to college, and was waiting near a bridge to kill her.

His immediate provocation came three days before the crime when he tried to speak to her but she snubbed him.

Jan, 23, 1996: Law student Priyadarshini Mattoo was found dead at her uncle’s house. Her senior, Santosh Kumar Singh, who had been stalking her for years, was the main accused. Later, it was revealed that Santosh, the son of an IPS officer, strangled her with a wire. The Delhi High Court on Oct 30, 2006 sentenced him to death. It was later changed to life term.