He could be a friend, a former boyfriend, a colleague, a neighbour or just an acquaintance you made polite conversation with at a party. He could even be a stranger you didn’t even notice as you shopped for groceries. But he’s watching all the time, what you do, how you get to work, where you live, and when you get home. And it’s not always a man. Though four out of five victims are female, there are instances of wives and girlfriends turning obsessive, say psychologists who have identified five types of stalkers.He is someone you know, and have been in a relationship with that might have been controlling or abusive in nature. Australian forensic psychiatrist Paul Mullen defines the rejected stalking type as an individual who has experienced the unwanted end of a close relationship, most likely with a romantic partner, but also possibly with a parent, colleague or acquaintance. On separation, the stalker wants to reconcile or exact revenge or vacillates between the two emotions, Mullen said. The victim learns this only too late. Like Anjali Rathour who entered into a relationship with Ashwani Yadav, a BBA student, while they were studying at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar. Anjali, a BTech student dated Yadav for four years but began avoiding him since January 2017. Yadav, however, didn’t give up and in June, called Anjali asking to meet her. Yadav allegedly chased the 23-year-old software engineer in a parking lot in Noida and shot her.You’ve seen this type in many Bollywood films. The hero waylays the heroine, she is initially annoyed but then gives in, and lives happily ever after with the stalker. Real-life is very different from reel and stalking a woman, who is not interested, is not wooing. “All stalkers believe in a pathological way that once they manage to contact the woman, she will begin to have a relationship with them,” explains clinical psychologist Dr Rajan Mitra. Take the case of Karuna, 21, who joined a neighbourhood computer centre owned by Aditya Malik. He fell for her and set about wooing her. But when she spurned his proposal of marriage, his love took a dark turn. Karuna complained about Malik stalking her to the police and both families later reached a compromise. However something went wrong. In 2016, a year and a half later, 34-year-old Malik stabbed Karuna with a pair of scissors several times in the middle of a busy street in Delhi’s Burari. Malik told the police he was angry after he saw some pictures that Karuna had sent to another man.This is the most dangerous kind. Dr Mitra says such men stalk because they fantasize about women in an obsessive pathological way. “They get a mental high from the pursuit,” he says. Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP leader Subhash Barala , and his friend Ashish Kumar may have perhaps been looking for a similar high as they allegedly chased DJ Varnika Kundu down the streets of Chandigarh on the midnight of August 4.The resentful stalker is driven by a sense of injustice. “Their behaviour reflects their perception that they have been humiliated and treated unfairly, viewing themselves as the victim,” says Robert T Muller, psychologist with the York University in Toronto writes in journal Pyschology Today. A 50-year-old street food vendor was brutally stabbed to death in April this year, allegedly by a 23-year-old who had earlier stalked his daughter, at Amar Colony in south Delhi. The accused, Bal Karan Yadav, was jailed in 2013 in a molestation case filed by the vendor’s daughter. Yadav got bail in 2014 but continued to nurse a grudge, looking for an opportunity to settle scores.Erotomania is a type of delusion in which the affected person believes that another person is in love with them. The victim is often a celebrity. Singer Selena Gomez was in 2012 stalked by a man who claimed he had conversations with God everyday about killing her while Madonna’s stalker had to be shot dead when he broke into her house. Closer home, actor Hrithik Roshan was stalked by a Russian woman Anna who wanted to marry him. Actor Kangana Ranaut ’s stalker followed her to the gym, while Vidya Balan’s frequented her film sets. Diya Mirza’s stalker even landed at her doorstep with a wedding ring. This man seeks intimacy with the woman, often a complete stranger, imagining them as their true love and begins to behave as if they are in a relationship. “Many intimacy-seeking stalkers carry the delusion that their love is reciprocated,” says Muller.