The Delhi murder case where Aaftab Poonawala not only confessed to killing his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar, but also cutting her body into pieces, has surely created havoc in the country. While more grotesque details of the case unravel every day, there were also reports of how the accused loved watching crime shows and web series, especially Dexter.
Former actress Somy Ali, who runs an NGO No More Tears in the US and helps victims of rape and domestic violence, says that she doesn’t blame crime shows or Dexter for giving out any kind of inspiration to people like Aaftab Poonawala.
Somy Ali says, “I can't stop thinking about what he did to that poor girl and how much pain she endured. My NGO has had several cases where people met online and the women ended up being brutally beaten or murdered. The internet is a scary place, but this should have never happened. I do not hold crime shows or Dexter (he only killed bad people and his father, a police officer, taught him to do so) responsible for this in any way! I am not justifying that this makes it okay, but mentally sane people are fully able to differentiate fact from fiction.”
“We don't go around shooting people or cutting them into pieces after watching a TV show or a movie. Only a narcissistically sociopathic individual has those tendencies. And, unfortunately, I have seen that all the abusers within my NGO have identical tendencies, even towards children,” she adds.
Somy Ali also says that such shows have been there since long and they merely provide entertainment. “Also, crime shows combined with the epitome sex and violence have been around for many years. Only a sociopath who is mentally deranged can get influenced by TV shows and act upon his or her rage. Then we have the number one factor of the consequences of committing a crime which many of these criminally insane believe they can and will get away with. We have many examples, not just in South Asia, but look at O.J. Simpson who got away with murdering his wife and her boyfriend. If fear of accountability is not instilled in people and what will become of them, given they hurt women and children, nothing will change. Whether is it child abuse, domestic violence, rape and in this case a brutal and grotesque murder. These tendencies are innate and we have several men who have carried out their cravings such as Jeffrey Dhamer and tons of serial killers all over the world, even the fictional Dexter,” opines Somy Ali.
In fact, Somy Ali says, such plots are important for a story. “Scripts will never remove the ingredients of sex and violence as that creates an irresistible meal and brings in a delicious amount of funds. It's our society which needs to pay attention and intervene anywhere they sense someone is enduring some sort of violence. It's far better to get yourself involved in others' business rather than learn that they were murdered. I would much rather prefer to be wrong than having ignored something that made me dubious about a situation,” she concludes.
