Couple tied to poles, brutally thrashed in Madhya Pradesh for having affair, 4 arrested

Police said the couple was beaten up by the family members of the woman. The video of the incident that took place on 16 June has since gone viral.

A young people thrashed by villagers in Kund village, Madhya Pradesh | Screenshot from the viral video

Bhopal: A young couple was tied to poles and brutally beaten up in full public view in Madhya Pradesh for having an affair, a video of which has gone viral on social media. Police have arrested four persons in this connection on 20 June.

The incident took place on 16 June in Kund village under Ambua police station area of Alirajpur district. The couple belonging to the Bhilala tribe was tortured by the 20-year-old woman’s family members. While the woman is a resident of Kund village, the 22-year-old man is from Deepa Ki Chowki village of the same district.

A police officer of Ambua police station, who is investigating the case, said the couple was tied to two different wooden poles that are usually used to tie cattle and then brutally beaten up. The woman’s family members slapped and pulled her hair, and thrashed and flogged the man with wooden sticks, the officer said.

Sources said the woman belongs to an affluent family, while the man comes from a modest background.

As no one came forward to lodge a formal police complaint, Alirajpur district police took up the matter Wednesday after seeing the viral video.

Villagers asked couple to end affair

Police said residents of Kund village had warned the couple against continuing their affair, but they did not pay heed. This irked the villagers and also the woman’s family members. On 16 June, when the 22-year-old man came to drop the woman at her house, the villagers and her family members caught hold of them and began to torture them.

Police said when other villagers came to know about the incident, a panchayat intervened and asked the man’s family to pay ‘tod’ (penalty) to settle the matter. The man’s parents were asked to pay Rs 90,000, the police officer said, adding that Rs 40,000 has already been paid.

“Police have arrested four people in connection with the incident,” Vipul Srivastava, Superintendent of Police, Alirajpur, said over phone.

The four arrested men are family members and relatives of the woman, Srivastava added. They have been identified as Ritesh, 22, resident of Kund village, Kadam, 28, of Baadi Holi Fallia village, Keiru, 35, and Mulesh, 35, both residents of Miriyawat village.

All of them have been booked under IPC sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).