Three months into the new year, the Capital has seen more than a heinous murder a month. Are the Delhi Police claims of vast improvements in the security environment actually reflective of the situation in the Capital?

The numbers suggest that as compared to last year, the cases of heinous crimes and crimes against women has dipped. However, the total tally of murders in Delhi, has spiked since last year. Almost every week, there is a news report of mindless arguments and street tussles ending in the death of one of the parties.

On a Monday morning, in the Delhi Cantonment area, a 22-year-old young man was found dead in a drain, bruised and battered. The attackers — two other young men (24 and 15 years of age respectively.) The youngster was bludgeoned to death for the simple fact that he refused to engage in a physical relationship with the younger boy.

The story goes that the three met on Sunday night. The victim refused the advances made by the two other men, and flat out refused to have sex with the minor. In response to this, the duo beat him to death, left his body in the drain and fled the scene.

Another recent incident took place in Dayalpur early in March. A 65-year-old woman named Hamidan died a slow death a couple of days later in Teg Bahadur Hospital. Her attackers were two young men who lived in the same neighbourhood. The arrested men alleged that Hamidan had thrown garbage in front of their house.

What followed was a very extreme way to resolve such an issue – Mohammad Ubesh and his companion beat up the old lady and left her bleeding at their doorstep. They were consequently charged with assault and unlawful restrain as they had dragged Hamidan into their house to thrash her. The order charge was added once she passed away in the hospital due to the injuries. “We had initially registered a daily diary,” says Atul Kumar Thakur (North-east DCP), as the victim was unfit to give a statement when she was admitted to a hospital. The neighbours however, did hear her cries for help.

Petty crimes have also seen a significant rise from 2018 to January 2019, with approximately 4,000 more reported cases of petty crimes than last year.

At the very beginning of the year, a whole family fell victim to a violent attempt on their lives. Sunita, her husband Veeru and their son Akash, were accosted by their neighbour in front of their house, knife in hand. The disagreement had begun over some minor issue in the neighbourhood, which then snowballed, and ended with the accused stabbing the family of three multiple times. After the deed, the man fled the scene.

The three were taken to Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in Khyala, and Sunita was declared brought dead. Veeru and his son were said to be in critical condition. During this quarrel, a number of bystanders were also present. Reports suggest that instead of intervening, they either stood and watched, or recorded videos and took pictures.

Murderous intentions seem to be rampant among youngsters too. During the weekend, a 17-year-old boy was arrested for the murder of a 14-year-old girl over a disagreement in their tuition classes. The young boy led the girl to a secluded area in a building that was under construction and spiked her drink with sedatives. He had asked her out on the pretext of going to see a movie. Once she was unconscious, he strangled the girl to death and left her there.

Police found no signs of sexual assault. She had been knocked out by a blow on the head, and then strangulated. When she was reported missing and investigations were underway, the police found out that she had been in touch with the perpetrator.

In the first round of questioning, he only revealed that the two went to an ice cream parlour together. However, on further questioning, he crumpled under the pressure. He ended up confessing that he had held a grudge against the victim when she complained to their teacher about him using foul language.

DCP (Shahdara) Meghna Yadav states that she is not convinced with the boy’s reasoning. “The incident he spoke of happened two years ago,” she claims. The kids attended the same tuition when they were younger, and that was when she had told on him to the teacher. They reconnected on Facebook just a few months ago. The DCP says that it is unlikely for him to have held on to that grudge and act on it after so many years. So, the probe is still on.

These murders in the Capital show that the crime rates in Delhi have gone down, once you take a closer look at the numbers. Not only that, but also the degrees to which allowances can be made and the crimes which the Delhi Police need to seriously crack down.