Amid the controversy surrounding Bhopal resident Udayan Das, who was arrested for allegedly killing his parents and live-in partner, experts have called for developing a detailed understanding of people who indulge in such acts to prevent similar incidents in future.
"It is not good to jump to conclusions about a person without getting the full details. The law enforcement agencies have to do their own work. However, in general, it is advisable that crime and its perpetrators are understood from a wider forensic psychological perspective," Devvarta Kumar, Additional Professor of Clinical Psychology at NIMHANS, told IANS,
However, Kumar refrained from commenting on the specific case.
He said it not only helps in understanding why an individual commits a crime but may also help in "rehabilitation of such persons as well as in preventing repetition of offence".
Kolkata-based counselling psychologist Shubhika Singh said that one sees this behaviour in someone who is a psychopath.
"They are extremely intelligent, very manipulative and emotionally blunted. They do not experience sadness, guilt or shame like other human beings," Singh, founding psychologist, New Leaf, told IANS.
Such people are danger to society and to themselves if not treated, she said.
She said researchers have also attributed psychopathic behaviour to brain abnormalities.
"In such a case, just understanding the mind and behaviour is not enough. But one has to take corrective procedures by getting treatment; this will help thwart people like Das from committing such acts," she explained.
Singh opined that the fact (according to media reports) that Das's family did not maintain healthy relationships with people around, could be a signal that they were not functioning appropriately as a family unit.
Singh also raised concerns about people in relationships trying to alienate partners from their families.
"It should be a big red flag if you have someone who is trying to alienate you or force/coerce you to cut ties with your family," Singh added.
Das was recently arrested by West Bengal police on charges of murdering his live-in partner Akanksha Sharma and entombing the body in a concrete block inside his house in Bhopal's Saketnagar.
Police have claimed that he admitted during interrogation of having killed his own parents in 2010 and buried them in the garden of the family's house in Raipur of Chhattisgarh.
Two skeletons, believed to be of his parents, were dug out from the Raipur residence on Sunday. The Bankura district court has sent him to police custody for eight days on Tuesday.
--IANS
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