Rajasthan DEXTER INSPIRED #DELHIMURDER?
3 1 4 DAHMER AND AFTAB’S MODUS OPERANDI SIMILAR? 2 5
As Aftab Ameen Poonawalla cites the crime show as inspiration for the way he murdered his girlfriend, we look at five gruesome crimes that took a cue from such projects
Munna, played by actor Divyendyu in the web show Mirzapur, kills Shriya Pilgaonkar’s character after she doesn’t reciprocate his love. And that inspired Touseef in Faridabad to kill Nikita Tomar, 21, in broad daylight by shooting her. He wanted to marry her, but she had spurned his advances.
A debt-ridden couple, Somnath Wakde, 37, and his 31-year-old wife Neelam allegedly killed their elderly relative and neighbour Sonubai
Krishna Chowdhari with a washing paddle in Maharashtra. They were inspired by Saavdhan India, and later hired a friend’s vehicle to transport the body to a lake in Bhiwandi. It was later found floating on the water by locals. It was the wife’s idea to kill and rob her to pay off their debt after watching an episode of the show.
Reality is not only stranger, but also inspired from fiction at times. The latest chilling crime, which has shocked the country, took place in Delhi. A 28-year-old man, Aftab Ameen Poonawalla, has allegedly confessed to killing his girlfriend, Shraddha Walkar, 26, chopping her into 35 pieces and getting rid of her body, in parts, over the next 18 days. The accused revealed that he read about human anatomy that helped him execute his plan. He then googled ways to clean the blood. Aftab has cited the American crime fiction show Dexter as his ‘inspiration’. As grisly as this sounds, this is not the first time that a show has inspired a crime. Here are five other spine-chilling offences that were committed by people after watching crime shows.
A 42-year-old Nagpur man, Guddu Chhotelal Rajak, has been arrested for killing his 16-year-old daughter. He got the idea from the crime drama CID, and staged it as a suicide. As per the police, he wanted to ‘teach a lesson’ to his second wife who had left the house on citing torture by Rajak, and refused to return. On November 16, his eldest daughter Mahi was found hanging from the ceiling with five suicide notes blaming her stepmother and her family for “forcing her to marry”. But the police grew suspicious, and got Rajak to confess to the crime.
A group of three teens, aged 15, 16 and 17 hailing from Jahangirpuri in Delhi, stabbed an innocent 24-year-old man to death, to promote themselves. As per reports, they watched the Mohit Raina-led crime drama Bhaukaal, apart from the Allu Arjun hit film Pushpa, and were deeply influenced. They committed the crime, and filmed it as well. They had plans to circulate the video on Instagram to create fear. The three had named themselves as ‘Badnaam Gang’.
Two 21-year-olds, Santosh Makwana and Vishal Anbhavne, were arrested for killing a 15-year-old girl in Maharashtra. They were inspired by Crime Patrol. Makwana was in a relationship with the girl. When her mother found out, she forbade them from meeting and the girl slapped him in the middle of the road. Enraged, he called the girl to meet him, and along with his friend, stabbed her in the abdomen till she was dead.
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While the accused in the Delhi murder case has cited the show Dexter as his inspiration, many people have pointed out that his modus operandi of killing, cutting the body into pieces and disposing them off in different places is also similar to the OTT show Dahmer. It was based on a real-life American serial killer and sex offender, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, who would kill his victims (between the years 1978-1991) and dismember them. His later murders also involved necrophilia, cannibalism and preserving parts of the victim’s skeleton.