The shooting of a second year college student, suspected to be committed by a stalker, in the Capital on Tuesday could be the latest in a growing number of passion crimes in the city, according to the Delhi Police.
Police figures show that 15 per cent of the murders in the Capital - or around 83 cases - were crimes of passion.
In most of these, the victims had been stalked because of unrequited love.
"Usually, stalking follows the pattern of familiarity. We cannot generalise profiles but stalking is not completely random. The stalker is familiar with the victim," consultant psychologist Arpita Anand said.
"Stalkers are usually not confrontative and persist with small, bothersome things. It is more about harassment, about disrupting someone's mental balance. This could be done resorting to tactics such as constant messaging, following a person - anything that the stalker thinks will affect the person he or she is targeting," she added.
Police records reveal that the number of victims of these crimes have been around 80 each year, where men have resorted to violence against women when faced with frustration in matters related to the heart.
The increasing number of these crimes has prompted the police to start an anti-stalking helpline and an anti-obscene call cell.
The police said they had received 22,486 calls in 2010 out of which action was taken on 21,837 complaints.
In the past few months, the Capital has witnessed several murders or violence against women.
On February 11, Neetu Solanki, a 29-year-old BPO employee, was murdered by her boyfriend who has since been absconding.
Bikers in the outer district of the Capital, especially the Mangolpuri area, have been attacking women with blades. The police had arrested two persons identified as Vishal (22) and Rohit (26) in December last year. During interrogation, the duo confessed that they wanted to teach women a lesson for spurning Vishal's advances.
"Vishal had earlier been rejected by a girl who spurned his advances. Vishal with the help of his friend Rohit started attacking women in the area due to frustration," a senior police official said.
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