On a crowded Delhi street in April, a 26-year-old hospital staff member was stabbed to death. Neelu Mehta’s alleged assailant was her husband, who believed she had cheated on him. In Nagpur, a man allegedly slit the throat of his former girlfriend’s friend in August. Police in Uttar Pradesh arrested a former 34-year-old pathologist earlier this month for allegedly murdering his wife and two children in 2018 in Noida so that he could live with his girlfriend. Across time and space, the crimes are horribly connected by a common thread: love!
Love can be deadly
More than ten percent of all murders in the country are the result of romantic relationships, including extramarital affairs. Among the 29,193 recorded murders in India, 3,031 are related to love affairs, according to the recently-released Crime in India Year 2020 report by the National Crime Records Bureau. There may be a failed marriage, rivalry, or suspicion, as well as other deeper emotions stemming from romance. NCRB, however, condensed these motives into two broad categories: ‘love affairs’ and ‘illicit relationships’.
Murders spurred by love increased
During the 2010-2014 period, these killings account for 7-8% of India’s overall murder rate. It rose to 11% between 2016 and 2020 when the total number of murders declined. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat are among the states where such cases have been reported. According to the latest NCRB data, murders related to romantic relationships accounted for slightly more than 15 percent of all murders in the country.
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In Kerala, West Bengal, and the northeastern states, fewer cases of such crimes have been reported. ‘Crimes related to love affairs and illicit relationships are accepted by society. Despite the fact that there are stringent laws for SC / STs, for example, crimes still occur because of socio-economic divides’, Prashant Kumar, Uttar Pradesh’s additional director-general of police, told India Today.
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