A teenager was brutally murdered in Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy area by a 20-year-old man named Mohammad Sahil Khan. Sahil’s Instagram account revealed posts that discussed his fondness for a “dark life,” alcohol, friends, and his mother. Disturbingly, his profile also includes a video of Sahil smoking a hookah while late Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s song ‘Selfmade’ plays in the background.
Sakshi, the victim, did not want to continue her relationship with Sahil, but he repeatedly tried to get in touch with her. There were frequent fights as Sakshi again started getting close to her ex-boyfriend Praveen, whose name she had got tattooed on her hand. On the day of the murder, Sahil brutally stabbed Sakshi over 16 times, hit her with a boulder six times, and kicked her several times. Sakshi died on the spot, and her skull was broken into pieces, as per the autopsy report.
The incident raises questions about the psyche of youth in the social media era. According to Dr Paramjeet Singh, a Consultant Psychiatrist at PSRI Hospital in Delhi, perpetrators in such scenarios could be impulsive, having anti-social traits, less guilt-prone, low frustration tolerance, may have a background of broken/abusive families, low on empathy or understanding others’ emotions, domineering, and insecure within and outwardly confident. Another Senior Psychologist at Columbia Asia Hospital Gurugram, Dr Ashish Kumar Mittal said that there is no denying the fact that a certain percentage of the population are narcissistic, psychopaths and have executed crimes like this before.
Shadows of a ‘toxic cocktail theme’ in popular songs among teenagers can be seen in many recent crimes with the latest instance being Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy murder. A song by a popular Haryanvi singer expressed the agony of a dejected lover and glorified his vengeful actions. The song includes lines like “tere lagni hai mehndi, mere lagni hai dhara (IPC), ashiquan ka katna tu bhul jayegi saara,” in which the singer portrays the character of a heartbroken lover who is in a murderous rage. The hero wishes to “teach his ex-beloved a lesson” on the day of her marriage with someone else, which would ultimately lead to his arrest.
The ripples of the reel-to-real incident can be seen in the recent killing of Sakshi by Sahil. Alcohol or validation by people close to the perpetrator also fuels and seconds the emotional rage.
