Some crimes are so barbaric that they have the effect of sending shivers down people’s spines. The grisly murder of a 30-year-old woman in Budgam is unquestionably such. It is impossible to just glimpse through headlines and come to terms with these realities and go about one’s day. Sometimes, the plot unfolds to be of such heinous nature that one’s instant unfiltered reaction is one of disbelief for it makes one wonder: how could someone do such a thing?
The devilish manner in which the culprit has carried out the act is humanly inconceivable. It sounds like a story from a different world where humanity has been treated with derision. The brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature of the crime is evincible from the acts committed by the culprit.
Crimes such as this one are simply unacceptable and severest punishment is required to be dealt.
There have been many crimes in the recent past. Last year, India was shaken by the horrific murder of a 27-year-old woman by her live-in boyfriend who not only killed her in cold blood, but chopped her corpse into 35 pieces, stored her remains in his house for months, and dumped them around the city.
In 2018, an 8-year-old girl was murdered before being raped in the Rasana village near Kathua.
The girl from a minority nomadic community, who was kidnapped on January 10 that year, was raped in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district, according to Crime Branch. She was kept sedated for four days before being bludgeoned to death.
When incidents like the present one surfaces, it causes ripples in the conscience of society and serious doubts are raised as to whether one really lives in a civilized society.
If at all there is a case warranting award of death sentence, it is the present case. If the dreadfulness displayed by the accused in committing the act does not fall in the “rarest of rare category”, then one may wonder what else would fall in that category. Some experts underline that the horrific crime was not at all “humanly possible without the influence of alcohol .”
Unfortunately with the ease in access and availability, the experts fear that “we may see more of such things happening.”
There are calls to hang the culprit. It is important that the police complete the investigation and ensure that the same is done meticulously to ensure that there is no lacuna left.