A blot on the city of Delhi, which wants to be in the league of world class cities, is the recent Sakshi murder in Shahbad Dairy locality, where in broad daylight a 20-year-old boy (Sahil) stabbed and killed a 16 years old girl (Sakshi).
The anger of Sahil, who was Sakshi’s boyfriend and in a relationship with her for last few years, crossed all limits once Sakshi wanted to break up.
He not only caught her in the street and continuously stabbed her for 20 times, till she fell on the ground. But his unabated rage continued as he picked up a huge concrete slab and smashed it on her head brutally crushing her skull.
The shocking CCTV camera footage of the murder shows him kicking her body before he finally left.
The pure uncontrollable rage and violence unleashed on Sakshi who dared to reject him was completely inhuman. Not satisfied with slashing and ripping her body with knife, he threw the slab and kicked her also. He simply wanted to stamp her out of existence like some vermin.
Clearly the young boy went berserk not being able to handle rejection.
There was no repentance as he cooly walked away from the scene and even escaped to Bulandshahr more than 100 kilometers from Delhi, where he was caught later by police.
If this is one horrific aspect of the incident exposing what kind of society we have built up in Delhi, the other which may seem more horrible is the fact that while this happened on one side of the street – the brutal murder of Sakshi. Hardly a few feet away, on the other side of the street, men and woman passed by normally hardly looking on the other side. Even if they saw they just were not concerned and were seen skirting around the point to avoid getting too close and went on their own way. Not a single person intervened or tried to catch hold of Sahil.
What is the kind of society we are living in? A complete disconnect from one another. Plus, a total lack of empathy with the victim as she is knifed and stoned to death.
Though Sahil is supposed have threatened people not to come close, a group may have controlled him.
The sad reflection is that this happens in New Delhi, the capital of India, and not any remote corner of the country. A brutal violence takes place and apathetic citizens just look on and are not interested in getting involved. They take it all in their routine stride.
These kinds of incidents show the entire society of the capital in extremely poor light. There was a time when criminals could not dare to commit a crime in broad daylight due to fear of people of the neighbourhood intervening who would get together and thrash the perpetrator and save the victim.
How has the society degenerated so much today, and people have become so insensitive? The social connectivity seems to be completely missing.
One talked to Forensic Psychologist Pooja Tomar who said, Sahil and Sakshi were acquainted and had an argument before the murder.
She said, the nature of the murder raises questions about the motive, relationship dynamics, and psychological state of the accused. Sahil stabbed Sakshi over 20 times and then crushed her head with a stone.
“This level of violence suggests that Sahil may have been experiencing strong emotions like rage, jealousy, or anger; there is not a single explanation for this behaviour. It is also usually the case that these people have faulty learning skills to cope with unfavourable situations.”
The way we treat murderers on social media, who are sometimes glamorized and seen as powerful, may also influence them to act in such a dangerous way, she added.
The fact that Sahil was Sakshi’s boyfriend raises questions about the dynamics of their relationship. In this case, it is possible that there were underlying issues such as possessiveness, control, or abuse that were ignored by the victim at an early stage, and these issues led to the murder being committed, she said.
Sahil’s actions are clearly criminal, Ms Tomar said, however, it is also important to consider whether he was in a sound state of mind at the time of the murder.
If he was experiencing a mental health issue or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, that needs to be assessed, she added. According to police Sahil was drunk at the time of the incident.
Ms Tomar said, the murder has had a devastating impact on Sakshi’s family who need to be given the emotional and mental support they need to cope with the tragedy.
“The video that is currently circulating on social media has the potential to give anyone nightmares, “she added.
Ms Tomar said, people who were standing close by and passing by the crime scene as Sahil attacked Sakshi on the street (as can be seen on the video) did nothing to help Sakshi or stop Sahil.
In psychology, this phenomenon is known as the “bystander effect”, she said.
“It can be influenced by several different factors, including the perceived level of danger, fear of retaliation, the diffusion of responsibility, and a lack of knowledge about how to help. In this case, the murderer was carrying a knife, which can be perceived as a level of danger or a risk of harm to bystanders”.
Another reason, she said, is that people were waiting for someone else to help because so many people were there, and no one thought it was their social responsibility to step in.
Another possible rationale for this behaviour in the present context, according to Ms Tomar is the widespread exposure to such violent events on social media which makes people apathetic.
“The constant exposure to such events leads to desensitization and diminished empathy. Witnessing criminal activities through social media also normalizes it and one accepts violent behaviour, which gradually influences attitudes and increases the likelihood of tolerating violence. We have shockingly learnt now that Sahil used to create videos on his social media account relating to violence.” she added.
“Similar to how we no longer report or feel concerned about any violent activity we view on social media, we have started behaving in same manner offline; no one is concerned. The social connection is deteriorating.”
Police in this case following the arrest and confession of Sahil is reported to be saying that it was part of premeditated murder as he planned to murder five more people including Sakshi’s ex-boyfriend.
According to the police, accused wanted to resume his relationship with Sakshi who refused in front of other friends which angered Sahil who had an altercation and hurled abuses. He, later caught Sakshi on the street and killed her.
Prof Janaki Abraham, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, said, nowadays routine violence is fairly high though the present case is an exceptional case because it went to extreme. However, we have become apathetic to these kind of incidents as we have started accepting violence on caste and gender lines as routine happenings.
Manifestation of apathy to violence on gender or caste routinely shows how our society has worsened. One or two persons take the violence to the level of Sahil, like in this murder case, she added.
She said, we have become desensitized to any kind of violence. Half the time we don’t know we are seeing a reel in social media or reality. Social media has changed our mind so profoundly that sometimes we do not know the difference between reality and illusion, she added.
She said, “Today people do not have the courage to come together to stand up for what is right. Very few people understand what is right and very few people stand up for what is right, that whole ethos, where people as a community will stand together to punish the defaulter is not there anymore. Nowadays there is no fear of anything, there does not seem to be any punishment for anything and if there is punishment there are loopholes, and if there are loopholes they are used by criminals as an escape route to avoid getting punished. This is a reality of today.”
Dr Sanjeev Tripathi, Clinical Psychologist, said, that these kinds of crimes are undertaken by children who suffer from Conduct Disorder in childhood. (Conduct disorder is behavioural and emotional problem in which complete disregard is shown for the others. Children with conduct disorder generally flout rules and regulations and do not behave in a socially acceptable manner. Their behaviour can be hostile and physically violent.)
He said if not given proper guidance, counselling, or psychological support, these children get a criminal mentality and turn to criminal activities and indulge in serious heinous crimes later with their anti-social mind set.
These children can be a result of bad parenting where the parent themselves indulge in addiction or criminal activities and is prone to violence. These children usually are neglected and generally come from pathological or broken families or single families.
These children when they grow up have personality disorder and in some cases, it shows up as psychotic disorders.
Depression can also lead to paranoid disorders where the person is over possessive and obsessive about his/her lover. This seems to the reason in the case of Sahil.
According to famous psychologist Freud, Man’s psyche consists of three parts, the id or the instinctual childish impulses and the super ego – critical conscience keeper of the ideal social norms and standards, and the ego keeping a balance between both. Too much emphasis on super ego leads to you trying to become a perfectionist and feeling guilty of not being able to reach your ideals. Too much emphasis on id leads you to become a criminal in trying to fulfil your instinctual desires not bothering about social norms and regulations, you do not feel guilty.
Dr Malathi Adusumalli, teaching at Delhi School of Social Work said that increased urbanisation has led to an alienated and individualistic society with people only concerned about making “me, myself” happy and least bothered about rest of the world.
Secondly, people spend most of the time in front of the television imitating whatever they see in it, like violence they see on screen in real life.
It is called the Bandura’s effect, Albert Bandura was a world famous psychologist who showed that media can directly ‘implant’ ideas into the mind of audiences. He also believed that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling. Violence or physical aggression are imitated from what is seen on screen.
She said, there is to be seen falling norms in society particularly the caring attitude, besides there is growth of violence and animosity towards each other. A feeling has grown that one can get away from punishment after indulging in such crimes, she added.
| Posted by Neha Khan | 
