Cheating is the end of the road in city

CHENNAI: The feeling of being

cheated by a spouse

and the simmering anger that leads to violence led to 17 murders in the city in 2016. Chennai is third in the country under the category of murders due to

illicit relationships

.

Sometimes committed at the spur of the moment, at other times planned seeking revenge, crimes of passion have been a sore point for police. Unable to preempt the crime and with no rule to monitor abusive partners, police feel helpless went it comes to preventing such murders. A senior police officer said it was difficult to check such incidents as it happens in the

privacy of homes

. “The feeling of being cheated by a spouse angers the person who

feels humiliated and beaten

. They resort to killing without blinking an eyelid and everyone is taken by surprise’’ he said.

In case of domestic abusers, police grapple with a serious gap in the system. There is no order that can be issued against abusive spouses. In many countries, a violent spouse is not allowed to live in the same house and is issued restraining orders. But here due to

social stigma nobody knows

when trouble brews between couples. Few women complain of wife-beating, said a police officer.

Patna stood first in the country with 30 murders due to illicit relationships followed by Bengaluru where 20 such murders occurred, Chennai with 17 and New Delhi (15).

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