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Copycat murder: Mother-son duo kills husband, chops and keeps body in fridge

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New Delhi, Nov 28: The Delhi Police has arrested a woman and her son who allegedly chopped off her husband's body into pieces and dumped it near Ramlila ground in Pandav Nagar. The duo had kept the body in refrigerator, a pattern similar to the one followed by Aftab Amin Poonawala in Shraddha Walker murder case.

Thew news agency ANI has shared a CCTV footage of the incident in which the duo can be seen going to Ramlila ground with a huge packet believed to be carrying pieces of women's husband body.

Copycat murder: Mother-son duo kills husband, chops and keeps body in fridge

They took multiple trips during the day and the night, as seen in the CCTV footage. The victim has been identified as Anjan Das. He was killed by wife Poonam and son Deepak.

According to reports, the mother and son were troubled by the victim's drinking habits. The two have confessed to their crimes, police said.

Das was also previously married in Bihar and has eight children. Police further said Das was unemployed and had fought with the two accused over money; they told police he insisted on taking their earnings because he had none of his own.

Revisiting Shraddha Walkar case

The crime incident once again reminds the national capital of the grisly murder of Shraddha Walker murder case, where the accused Aftab killed her and sawed her body into 16-17 pieces. He kept them in a refrigerator and disposed them of in the Mehrauli forest area over a period of 18 days.

Aftab who is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail was arrested on November 12 as police continues to try to gather evidence against him. He will undergo narco test on December 5 after completing the session of polygraph test.

Aftab should be hanged: Ajit Pawar on Shraddha Walker murder caseAftab should be hanged: Ajit Pawar on Shraddha Walker murder case

Aftab had told the Police who are investigating the case that he picked upthe dismemberment technique from the famous American TV shows Dexter. In the show it is shown how meticulously neutralising his targets.

Another gruesome murder occurred in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh. A man was was arrested for killing his former girlfriend and then chopping her body into six pieces. The incident had come to light on November 15 after some locals found the body inside a well located outside Paschimi village.

Like Shraddha, Aradhana's body was dismemberedandthrown into the well. According to PTI report, Prince Yadav, the alleged killer with the help of Sarvesh, strangled her in a sugarcane field. The two then cut her body in six parts, packed them in a polythene bag, and threw it into a well, police said.

While none of the accused has confessed to having copied Aftab Amin Poonawala, there is an uncanny resemblance in the way the murders were committed. In criminology, it's termed as copycat crime.

Copycat crime

A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modelled after or inspired by a previous crime. It notably occurs after exposure to media content depicted said crimes, and/or a live criminal model. The copycat effect is the alleged tendency of sensational publicity about violent murders or suicides to result in more of the same through imitation, according to Wikipedia.

Few copycat crimes are fully replicated, while some killers lift only certain elements and copies like the technique, modus operandi etc.

The Copycat crime term was first coined around 1916 due to the crimes that were inspired by Jack the Ripper. Due to the increase of replicated crimes, criminologists soon began to believe that media coverage played a role in inspiring other criminals to commit crimes in a similar fashion, and even for non-criminals to begin committing crimes when they otherwise might not have done so.

'He blackmails me that he'll kill me, cut me in pieces': Shraddha Walker's police complaint in 2020'He blackmails me that he'll kill me, cut me in pieces': Shraddha Walker's police complaint in 2020

A book written by Loren Coleman called The Copycat Effect describes the effect that the media has on crimes and suicides, which are inspired by crimes that have been widely covered across the media. Coleman's view on the media is that the constant coverage of these events, rather than the events with a positive message, gives these criminals a type of fame.

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