Why the stalker syndrome should not be taken lightly

Stalking, in various degrees, has been glorified in films. Right from Dharmendra in Sholay to Salman Khan in Sultan and Dhanush in Raanjhana, stalking has been shown as a sure means to get the girl of your dreams, or in some cases like Darr and Anjaam starring Shah Rukh Khan to ruin her life. On August 5, Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala, followed Varnika Kundu, a DJ from Chandigarh as she was driving home late at night. He even tried to pry open the door of her car. When Kundu registered a police complaint against Barala, he was let off without being produced in court. Also, earlier the police had not included sections 365 and 511 in the charges which are “kidnapping or abducting with intent, secretly and wrongfully to confine person" and "punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment", respectively. Besides slapping on sections 365 and 511 on the accused duo, Vikas Barala and Ashish Kumar, they have been remaded in police custody for two days as of today.

Ironically, it was Kundu who had come under the scanner right after the incident occurred. "She should not have gone out at 12 in the night," said Ramveer Bhatti, vice-president of Haryana BJP. Some on social media, too, tried to trash Kundu's reputation by saying that she was looking for 'cheap publicity'. All this was just days after actor and BJP MP from Chandigarh Kirron Kher urged the government to look at “stalking as violence against women” on August 1. In September 2016, a woman was stabbed 22 times with a pair of scissors by a man who proposed marriage to her. She had earlier been stalked by the same man. In July 2015, a cop in Thane was arrested for stalking a girl. In May 2015, a woman suffered from 50 per cent acid burns as her stalker threw acid on her face.

What do the incidents tell us? Should the women have given up and responded to her stalkers advances? Or should the authorities step up and penalise stalkers before they become murderers or attackers? Thankfully in Kundu's case, her own father stood up for her and so did a horde of women on social media who posted pictures of them out at night with the hashtag AintNoCinderella. Vikas Barala has finally been arrested.

Even so, should women believe that the streets, especially at night, belong to men and that if she is out at a questionable hour she 'deserved it'? Or as BJP MP Shaina N.C. subtly hinted with a tweet, that if a man happens to know you, he can stalk you? (Shaina NC had tweeted an image of Kundu with a man and identified him as Barala and suggested that her allegations were false). Stalking should be considered a grave offence and the offender should be punished so that the offence is not repeated.

Says Sajan K.B., a criminal lawyer practising at Kerala High Court: “For stalking there is only 354D of the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Amendment Act of 2013, which allows bail to the offender. The crime being described as man following a woman, contact, establish personal interaction repeatedly despite clear indication of disinterest; monitors the woman on the internet, email or any other form of communication, commits the act of stalking. If he offender repeats the act, it then becomes non-bailable offence. However, if the victim can prove intention like attempt to kidnap, murder or assault, the offender can be booked under the respective sections.” A loosely framed law such as this one itself puts the stalker at an advantage of getting away with bail which is what Barala did in the first instance before sections 365 and 511 were slapped on.

Besides, stronger amendments to the law, what is needed is for celebrities to take a stand against stalking and refuse to do films that show it as a glorified act or as the only means to get a girl to say 'yes'. Or sadly, we will see more Priyadarshini Mattoos who was raped and murdered by the son of a police inspector-general in 1996, who had stalked her for years.