[If you have a shaky heart, be cautious; for, this article narrates the most inhuman act of killing dear-ones. No last rites, no crimination but chopping of dead bodies into pieces and dispersing at different places to avoid evidence or even to cook and eat!]
Dictionaries may not have a single word to describe the degree of the brutality and cruelty of the monstrous act of killing a ‘dear one’, heinousness act of chopping his/her body into pieces, packing them perfectly and storing in the fridge to later dispose them of, bit by bit.
Taking the life of a living being, without justification, is an abhorrent act, discarded in civil societies and prohibited by all religions. However, in recent days, there is a flood of reported incidents of killing some close-one, then chopping the dead body.The ethical slogan in our country is, “AhinsaParmo Dharma, DharmoHinsaTathaiva Cha”. That means: “There is nothing greater than non-violence; Non-violence is the utmost duty but protecting Dharma is supreme.” In the reported cases, violence is associated with whims, anger or hatred. No angle of protection of Dharma is involved.
However, since the inception of the “Hindutva” ideology, its adverse values are pushing behind real values taught by the “Dharma” and practised in India. Sri Krishna taught Ahinsa, even in the warfield but people are spreading hinsa (violence) in his name and in the name of Sri Rama. No tolerance, no humanity. Before further discussing the issue of rising menaces, let’s look at a few headlines and news, in brief, to evaluate the situation.
- Woman killed by a live-in partner, body chopped in 35 pieces: The national conscience was shaken by the most horrific murder of a 27-year-old woman, S. Walkar, by her live-in boyfriend A. Poonawala, who not only killed her in cold blood, (October 2022) but also chopped her corpse into 35 pieces, stored them in his fridge for months, and dumped the pieces one by one at various places in the jungles around Mehrauli and Gurgaon. The case came to light in November 2022 and earned headlines.
- HORRIFIC! Man CHOPS OFF woman’s breasts in the crowded market of Bhagalpur (Bihar): Dec 05, 2022. A man attacked a young woman in front of many in the crowded market of Bhagalpur and chopped off her breasts, hands, feet, and ears with a sharp chopper. Nobody came up to save her. The woman later died in the hospital. (The accused was arrested and the chopper was recovered. (Reason: she had snubbed his advances.)
- Man kills ex-girlfriend, chops her body into pieces in Azamgarh, arrested: The accused Prince Yadav dated the victim Aradhana Prajapati, in her mid-20s, for almost two years. Aradhana got married to someone else in February this year while Prince was living abroad. After he returned, he forced her to break from her husband and come back with him. She did not oblige. Aggrieved Prince took her out on his bike on the pretext to visit some Mandir on November 10. In the jungle, he killed her and chopped her body to dispose at several points.
- Ex-Navy man killed by wife and son, body chopped into six parts: Baruipur (West Bengal) November 12; Ujjwal Chakraborty, a 55-year-old former navy officer, was killed at home by his son during a brawl after he refused to give him `3,000 to pay the exam fee. After Ujjwal hit his head with a chair and lost consciousness, the son strangulated him. Son and the wife dragged his body to the bathroom and hacked it into six pieces. He made cycle trips to scatter them across Baruipur.
- Mother-son duo chop father’s body, store parts in the fridge: Delhi Police on Monday (November 28) solved the mystery of human body parts found in East Delhi’s Pandav Nagar and said that remains of the deceased were kept in the refrigerator. The duo dumped the body parts every day as was done by the killer of Shraddha Walker. The victim allegedly had bad eyes upon some women in the family.
- Kerala human sacrifice: Victims’ bodies were cut into 56 pieces; cannibalism angle suspected; (12th October 2022) Police recovered body parts of the victims. The crime of women’s sacrifice was done under the influence of an occult that impressed upon the husband of a killed woman that it will bring them prosperity.
- Landlord kills tenant, chops his body into pieces, and dumps in the canal (December 15, 2022): The accused Umesh Sharma from UP’s Modinagar, Ghaziabad district was arrested for allegedly killing his tenant, Ankit Khokar, chopping his body into four pieces and then throwing in a canal to destroy the evidence. The victim had recently sold his ancestral land in Baghpat and got ₹1 crore. His landlord was eyeing the money. Sharma strangled Ankit to death on October 6. He packed his body parts in aluminium foil before disposing of them.
- Jharkhand Man Allegedly Killed 22-Year-Old Second Wife, Chopped Body: Patna: In a horrific murder, a 22-year-old woman RubikaPahadan was killed, and her body chopped into several pieces in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district. The police have recovered more than 8 pieces of the body and detained the victim’s husband Dildar Ansari, who had married Pahadan around one month back, as a suspect. However, he has denied his involvement in the crime. The family has confessed to committing the crime. According to the police, the victim was Dildar’s second wife. She was killed as part of a conspiracy over marital discord.
There may be more unreported cases. All cases came to light recently. In comparison to a minimum 8 cases from India, one such horrific case is reported from Karachi, another from Bull Bay, St Andrew (Jamaica Iceland) and yet another from Mexico of 2020.
The trend emerging in India looks like an offshoot of increased hate-mongering. Cruelty against monotheists is being preached and hate speech against them by people in saffron robes has become the routine.
Political leaders are also sowing the seeds and watering the seedlings of criminality. When mass murdering of helpless people and protection granted to erring administration are projected as political landmarks, lynching accused are honoured and mass killer gang rapists are set free shamelessly, what type of mentality will grow and govern the actions of perverted people? If analysed, lust for money and political power, instinct of sexuality and immorality are the main factors behind these tendencies. When violent mentality develops in mind against this or that, then it sees no limits and no directions. Anybody may be targeted for any reason. In 2017 a young Hafiz Junaid was hacked to death in a crowded train, near Delhi. A cause of the crime was cited in his skull cap which irked some people.
It is unfortunate that no exemplary society exists presently to show Islamic case of respect of humanbeing and other living species.
[The writer is Chairman, Forum for Civil Rights. Email: [email protected]]