The Shraddha Walkar murder has exposed the rot of toxic relationships clubbed with the level of depravity in some humans. Such criminal acts need to be dealt with harshly, swiftly, and with an iron hand of the law. Considering that a lot of time has passed between the death and the discovery of the crime, it would be doubly a challenge for the Delhi Police to present a foolproof case against the psychopath to ensure the award of a death penalty for the crime, which comes under the rarest of rare category. The perversity and cold-blooded nature of what Aftab Poonawalla has done also shames humanity.
As the investigation picks up momentum and more details emerge, instead of talking about the glaring issues highlighted by this case, such as the safety of women, abusive relationships, exploitation of women on the pretext of marriage, domestic violence, and mental health in toxic relationships, a section of the society has rather chosen to toast the spreading of communal propaganda of ‘love jihad’, while many others continue to spit hate on Shraddha Walkar’s Instagram account.
Shraddha has been denied dignity even in death, not only by her partner but also by the society as a whole that blames her for being ‘ultra-modern’ and opting to adopt ‘western evils’, such as a live-in relationship. A sitting Union minister has already pronounced judgment on women who choose live-in relationships over marriage and has blamed women for their fate.
Such patriarchal and judgmental men in positions of power should remember the case of Naina Sahni and Sushil Sharma. In that case, the victim’s husband, who on the mere suspicion of his wife Naina Sahni having an extramarital affair, not only killed her but also chopped her body and burnt it in a Tandoor part by part. While the case led to massive outrage across the nation and the man was convicted, what is shameful is that the murderer after 23 years in jail was released and in interviews later stated his desire to be a relationship counsellor, claiming to have ‘changed’.
If this is not a travesty of justice, what is? No different was the case of Bilkis Bano — where the convicts, who were proven guilty of the inhuman crimes of not only raping an innocent woman but also killing her child in front of her eyes, were pardoned very recently on the ground of ‘good behaviour’. The news platforms are filled with such unending lists of incidents – be it the case of Gulati of Dehradun, who murdered his wife and used an electric saw to cut her in 70 pieces, or the recent case of Mumbai, wherein a girl was pushed off a water tank by her boyfriend.
These cases highlight that crime cannot be and should not be assessed by the yardstick of religion, modernity, place, or age of the victim.
Such perversity needs to be shown no mercy but only the severest of severe punishment. Yet, despite the outrage on social media platforms, there is no real impact on the ground and women continue to live their lives as before.
The discourse surrounding the animalistic crime highlights a lack of awareness of the complexities of toxic relationships and gendered relationships. We, as a society, need to come together to introspect on certain questions — Why do women continue to stay in such relationships? Is the society providing a security net for women to fight the complex nature of toxic relationships? What protection is afforded by the law and the society to help women walk out of such relationships?
Giving the issue a communal shape disserves the objective of the dialogue this incident has forced us to introspect. The lack of psychological awareness on the subject, the ability of abusers to gaslight and emotionally abuse the victim and the association where the victim is not able to escape or reach out to the loved ones require more societal empathy and understanding. Additionally, pushing forward patriarchal notions and hate for modernism deprives women of the safe space to realise, recognise and act against the initial red flags.
The need of the hour is to create awareness of the psychology of abuse against victims of gendered violence, create a safe space to share their traumas, and not overburden the victims with societal burdens of ‘chastity’ and ‘honour’.
The couple, both seemingly from well-educated backgrounds, met on a dating platform. With the rise in the use of dating platforms, there is a need for a policy framework to ensure reasonable accountability. Most importantly, the State needs to ensure that there is not only fair and speedy justice, but also prevention and awareness on the subject.
At the same time, the judiciary must also ensure the creation of sufficient deterrence in the society against such crimes and introspect the scope of rehabilitation of those who commit unspeakable crimes. As is rightly said, justice should not only be done but also be seen to be done.
With numerous issues being brought to light by the ripples of this unfortunate and unthinkable crime and while law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the details of the incident, we as a society, need to strive to create a stronger social and legal security net for the victims. This will help them fight such evils. Giving Shraddha dignity in her death by stopping the character assassination for exercising her choices is the crucial first step.
(Priyanka Chaturvedi is a Shiv Sena leader and member of the Rajya Sabha.)
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