“Without showing any emotion, Arshad just kept talking as they moved around on the Charminar. When he found a deserted place, he pushed her down. Then he went home. It took us two days to figure it out,” says Charminar Police Station inspector Karan Singh.

Psychiatrist K Venkat attributes part of this trend to the influence of Telugu movies. “Just like in films, youths don’t want to take no for an answer. They try all sorts of stunts seen in films. They pursue the girl so aggressively that they become extremely jealous, and if they see the girl being friendly with any other boy, they think of betrayal and revenge.”

In the June 27 attack, R Vinod stabbed his girlfriend and her mother in their house in the city. Reshma, her mother Bishmamma and Vinod used to work in the same firm in Rajendranagar. The police say Reshma’s mother objected to her friendship with Vinod and stopped her from seeing him. “Vinod then proposed marriage but Reshma did not give any answer. He decided to go to her house to talk to her mother and when they did not entertain him, he stabbed both,” a police official said.

“In most cases, though the girl knows that a youth is stalking her, often making threats, they either don’t take it seriously or even if they complain, they are not taken seriously by parents or college authorities. The involvement of the police comes in very late,” said Hyderabad Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao.