On Friday, a Class 12 student committed suicide in Delhi’s Bakhtawarpur area. The girl was allegedly being stalked and threatened by her neighbour.
A suicide note has been recovered from the place of crime. According to the note, the girl was frustrated with the stalking and threats that she had to deal with everyday at the hands of her neighbour.
This was corroborated by the girl’s relatives, who also accused their 20-year-old neighbour for stalking and mentally torturing the girl:
She did it because a neighbour used to stalk her and also threatened to kill her parents.A relative of the girl told ANI
The accused is allegedly a 20-year-old youth and the police is making efforts to arrest him.
Make Stalking a Non-Bailable Offence
The Quint has been running a campaign called #TalkingStalking to make stalking a non-bailable offence. A non-bailable offence allows for an extra layer of scrutiny before the accused is let out on bail. It is important for a crime like stalking because invariably, stalking is never a crime in isolation. It leads to acid attacks, rapes, and sometimes even murder and suicides.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, NCRB:
- There has been a 33 percent rise in stalking cases. 4,699 cases were reported in 2014 and 6,266 cases were reported in 2015
- 35 percent of the cases ended in conviction in 2014
- 26 percent of the cases ended in conviction in 2015
- In 2014, 85 percent of the accused were given bail before the investigation ended
- In 2015, 83 percent of the accused were given bail before the investigation ended
- 60 percent of all accused were men between 18-30 years. Two percent were juveniles between 16-18 years.
This is why The Quint has launched a petition along with Varnika Kundu and Dr Shashi Tharoor to appeal to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to make stalking a non-bailable offence. Sign our petition here.
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