When Aftab Poonawalla crafted the murder chronicle of Shraddha Walkar, he nonchalantly accepted that he did so in a ‘fit of rage’. The body was chopped into 35 pieces, bones were reduced to powder, and the remains were disposed of in Delhi’s Mehrauli jungle over a span of a few months. Forward to March 2023 in Mumbai, a murder of similar style has been reported; torso and head wrapped in a saree, limbs stored in a steel drum, and perfumes sprayed for months to cover the foul smell. This time, the murderer was a 23-year-old girl.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. A rise of spine-chilling murder cases where bodies have been disposed of in an undignified manner makes us wonder about the mental state of cold-blooded murderers. What is the striking commonality in all three cases? The victims were killed by their closest kin, i.e., a boyfriend, a daughter, and a lover.