**UPDATED** Why Stalking-Related Violence Should Feature on the National Radar

By Sneha Rajaram

*UPDATE/ May 18, 2016*

On May 15, 2016, a young woman and her family were assaulted, threatened and chased by five men in Anand Parbat in central Delhi who had been arrested the day before for stalking her, but had been let off on bail. Anand Parbat is where the 19-year-old woman (mentioned below) was chased and stabbed by her stalker after police ignored her complaint last July.

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ORIGINAL STORY/ JULY 23, 2016

After the horrific incident in Delhi on 20^th July where a girl was murdered by her long-time stalkers, we’ve been wondering how many stalking incidents have been reported in the news in the last few months. Here are a few we found after a quick online search. And they don’t begin to cover it. Notice the number of incidents which escalated, the number where the police refused to take the incidents seriously.

Note: The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013 recognized stalking is as an offence in Section 354D of the Indian Penal Code. And on 3^rd July, the first conviction in a case of cyberstalking in Maharashtra took place.

20^th July, Mumbai: A 15-year-old girl is chased and stabbed multiple times at 6.30am by her stalker. She’d complained to the police about him, but they didn’t take her seriously.

16^th July, New Delhi: A 19-year-old woman is chased and stabbed to death by her stalkers in broad daylight. She’d complained to the police about them, but they’d been harassing her to withdraw the complaint. Her mother, the only person who tried to intervene, was stabbed too.

16^th July, Mumbai: A 53-year-old man is booked for stalking a woman, following her and even sitting at her office desk. No arrest made yet.

15^th July, Mumbai: Joint secretary of the MNS, Ravi Gharat, visits a police station and lectures a recently appointed senior inspector about crimes against women. In 2013 he had stalked and threatened a woman for two years and shot at her brother out of a sense of rejection.

14^th July, Hyderabad: A man chases and stabs two sisters, 21 and 22, to death. He’d been stalking the older sister for two years. Her mother had complained to his parents with no result.

11^th July, Bangalore: A 24-year-old man is arrested for stalking a former college mate. She complained to the police when he threatened to kill her if she did not marry him.

11^th July, Bangalore: A 43-year-old man stalks and harasses a 21-year-old woman for four months, and disappears when she commits suicide.

10^th July, Mumbai: A 25-year-old man is arrested for stalking and threatening his ex-girlfriend with an acid attack.

6^th July, Pilibhit, UP: A 11^th standard student beats her stalker in a police station. Her parents, fearing a backlash, have asked for protection.

4^th July, Vadodra: A 40-year-old man is arrested for stalking a 16-year-old girl and taking pictures of her.

2^nd July, Mumbai: A police constable is arrested for stalking a 21-year-old woman.

19^th June, New Delhi: A PhD student at St Stephen’s College lodges an FIR against her PhD guide, stating that he molested her after months of stalking. He once threatened to “pour sulfuric acid on her if she didn’t wear a yellow sari to college”.

29^th May, Chennai: A 21-year-old woman is stabbed repeatedly by a former colleague. He’d been stalking her for a year.

22^nd May, Bhopal: A man who had been stalking a 25-year-old woman threw acid on her face. She spotted her stalker on that day and went to a police station to complain about him. They redirected her to another police station. Minutes later, on her way to the second police station, she was attacked.

27^th April, New Delhi: A 35-year-old woman hangs herself. Her suicide note reveals her son’s tutor was stalking her. She’d complained to the police but they didn’t do anything about it.

For further reading, here are some ruminations on the value of Section 354D.