Grisly Murders of Women: Grim Reminder of Ground Realities | UnBreak the News with Prema Sridevi | Ep:103

Recently, India has been witnessing numerous cases of brutal crimes against women. The mounting instances of violent assaults and murders point to the failure of law enforcement agencies to prioritise action related to violence against women. Be it the case of Shraddha Walker in Delhi, who was brutally murdered and her body chopped into multiple pieces or the story of Aradhana Prajapati in UP, who was killed mercilessly and her chopped body parts were thrown into a well, the recent cases of violence against women exposes the lack of legislative framework and access to justice for women in the world’s largest democracy. Prema Sridevi UnBreaks this News for you!

(Produced below are the abridged version of the transcripts of the video explainer from Episode: 103 | UnBreak the News with Prema Sridevi | Title: Grisly Murders of Women: Grim Reminder of Ground Realities)

Recently, India has been witnessing numerous cases of brutal crimes against women. The mounting instances of violent assaults and murders point to the failure of law enforcement agencies to prioritise action related to violence against women. Be it the case of Shraddha Walker in Delhi, who was brutally murdered and her body chopped into multiple pieces or the story of Aradhana Prajapati in UP, who was killed mercilessly and her chopped body parts were thrown into a well, the recent cases of violence against women exposes the lack of legislative framework and access to justice for women in the world’s largest democracy. Let’s UnBreak this News!

“Shraddha’s friend told us in August that she could not be contacted for the last two months. They asked me to try to locate her through her other friends or the police, and that’s when I started taking action. When I met Aftab for the first time, he immediately declared that Shraddha was no more and that he had murdered her,” recounted Vikas Walker, Shraddha Walker’s father, speaking to a news channel.

Vikas then went on to narrate the cold-blooded murder of his daughter in a flat in Delhi. Shraddha was allegedly strangled to death by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala who is believed to have cut her body into 35 pieces after killing her on May 18. Shraddha was subjected to physical assault and violence throughout her relationship with Aftab. After smothering Shraddha and chopping her body into 35 pieces, he stored her body parts in a refrigerator for close to three weeks before dumping them away in nearby areas over the course of 18 days in May this year.

While this case was being widely reported by the media, another case soon emerged from UP which had an uncanny resemblance to the Shraddha Walker case. A man in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh District was arrested for killing a woman and chopping her body into six pieces. This incident came to light on November 15 when localities found the victim, Aradhana Prajapati’s decomposed body inside a well in a semi-naked condition. The accused, Prince Yadav and his cousin Sarvesh allegedly strangled Aradhana and killed her. They then allegedly chopped her body into six pieces, packed it in a polythene bag and threw it into a well.

Again this month, another young woman’s body parts were found in a red suitcase near the Yamuna Expressway in UP’s Mathura. The Mathura police have said that they are investigating the role of 22-year-old Ayushi Chaudhury’s parents in her murder. According to the police, Ayushi was allegedly murdered by her parents when they got to know that their daughter had married a man without their consent. After Shooting Ayushi with a licensed gun, her father, Nitish Yadav, packed her body in a suitcase and dumped it in Mathura.

Yet again, in Madhya Pradesh, a man axed his wife to death and buried her body in two parts. The police, during the course of the investigation, found that the man had suspected his wife of infidelity and therefore decided to murder her.

While we have witnessed numerous cases of such grisly murders of women across India, November 25 also marks the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women. The United Nations General Assembly designated the day to raise awareness around the world about the violence women are subjected to worldwide, often the scale and true nature of which goes hidden or unnoticed.

As per WHO, “about 1 in 3 (30%) women globally experience physical and/ or sexual violence, mostly at the hands of an intimate partner. Such violence starts alarmingly early, almost 1 in 4 (24%) adolescent girls aged 15-19 who have had an intimate relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner”.

According to global statistics, India falls within the second highest prevalence range of countries, with 35-39 per cent of ever married/partnered women aged 15 to 49 experiencing physical and or sexual violence from an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime.

The National Crime Records Bureau has reported that the crime incidents against women increased by 15.3 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020. As per the National Commission for Women, there was a nearly 31 per cent rise in complaints of crimes against women in 2021 as compared to 2020.

Many women’s rights activists say the lack of a strong legal framework to book perpetrators of violence against women and the dearth of access to justice for women subjected to violence are some of the main reasons for the mounting numbers of such incidents. Additionally, the lack of action against criminals who have violated women has also emboldened the perpetrators who believe that they can get away with crimes against women.

Marital rape is still not a crime in India. The release of the 11 convicts involved in the Bilkis Bano gangrape and the recent release of the men sentenced to death for the gangrape of a 19-year-old Delhi woman in the fields of Haryana - all point towards the loopholes within our judicial processes.

Over the years, numerous women like Shraddha Walker, Aradhana Prajapati, and Ayushi Chaudhury, amongst others, have lost their lives to such brutal violence. The American Singer and Songwriter Bob Dylan once famously said: “How many deaths will it take till we know that too many people have died”. The law enforcement agencies in India must answer this when it comes to the continuous spate of violent attacks and crimes against women.