Lucknow: Villagers from Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district tied a 35-year-old woman to a tree, garlanded her with shoes, chopped off her hair, and blackened her face in front of her three children during a ‘panchayat’ called at the behest of her husband and in-laws to discuss her extramarital affair.
The incident happened at roughly 10.30 am Sunday in Kurha Ibrahimpur village in Pratapgarh’s Kunda despite the woman’s mother and another relative from her parents’ side being present at the scene, the police said.
Speaking to ThePrint, Kunda circle officer Ajeet Kumar Singh said the husband, Hari Lal, has been living in Mumbai, where he works for a private company, while the woman and their children have been staying with his family in the village.
The woman was allegedly in an affair with Lovekush Patel, who lost his wife four years ago and lives with his four daughters in the village. Hari Lal had been suspicious about the affair for roughly one or two years, said the police.
“Her husband was suspicious about the alleged extramarital relationship for some time and recently arrived at a conclusion and decided to do something about it. He arrived in the village two to three days ago and complained about his wife to his family members and her mother. Then, they called ‘panchayat’,” he said.
A Pratapgarh police officer told ThePrint that during the ‘panchayat’, the woman’s relatives, with the tacit approval of the village pradhan, decided to punish her and Lovekush. However, Lovekush, also in his 30s, fled and approached the police.
“Lovekush managed to flee somehow and informed the police. When we raided the panchayat, we found the woman’s chopped hair lying on the ground…. She was crying, and the police untied her,” said the officer.
Nand Lal Singh, the SHO of Pratapgarh’s Hathigawa police station, lodged an FIR in the case, naming 25 accused, including the woman’s husband, in-laws, mother, and another relative, and mentioning 20-25 unidentified persons.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, when the police moved to free the woman, the accused who were armed with sticks, lathis and axes, started shouting, saying that the police should go away, and they will decide the matter themselves.
So far, the police have arrested 17 villagers, including the woman’s husband and in-laws, and are now looking for the other accused, including the village pradhan.
“Eight women and nine men have so far been arrested — including the woman’s husband, her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, mother and aunt, and Anuj Mishra, who is the village pradhan’s representative. Arjun Patel, the village pradhan, is absconding. Raids are going on for his arrest, too,” Kunda circle officer Singh said.
The police have also booked Lokekush for picking up a fight at the spot.
Minor children’s ‘tutored’ statements
ThePrint has obtained clips from during the assault and from after the police and the media reached the spot when the woman’s daughter is seen crying while her eldest son (12) explains how her punishment came about.
“My father asked me if my mother had been using a mobile phone and hugged me and started crying. I, too, started crying. My father then asked my mother if she wanted to stay with Lovekush, and she said that she would go with him,” he said. “The next day, my father told her to go and not to take anything from our house.”
The child said a panchayat was called on Sunday after his mother had a spat with her father-in-law, and Lovekush, initially, tried to extricate her. “When my mother and grandmother (the woman’s mother) were fighting, Lovekush ran away,” he said.
However, Kunda police officers said that his statement most likely was tutored, especially since the child went on to claim that he and his younger brother tied up their mother.
“Is it possible that two minor children can tie up their mother when several villagers were present at the spot? The child seems to be giving statements, tutored by the woman’s in-laws,” Kunda circle officer Singh said.
“The panchayat was called at the behest of the woman’s husband and his family members. Several other villagers, including womenfolk, were present during the incident,” Singh said.
Hathigawa police station SHO Nand Lal Singh told ThePrint that the pradhan and other panchayat members were culpable since they did nothing to stop the woman’s in-laws from tying her up and assaulting her.
Police have lodged an FIR against the villagers under sections 191 (1) (use of force or violence by an unlawful assembly, or by any member thereof, in prosecution of a common object), 191 (2) (rioting), 190 (unlawful assembly), 115 (2) (punishment for causing hurt voluntarily), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 351 (2) (punishment for criminal intimidation), 121 (1) (voluntarily causing hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of his duty as such public servant), 132 (assault or use of criminal force to any person being a public servant in the execution of his duty as such public servant), 194 (2) (punishment for committing affray), 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty of a woman), and 74 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment (CLA) Act.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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The Print’s double standards are so clearly evident.
Very similar events happened in West Bengal not once but multiple times over the last one month. The accused women were beaten up mercilessly in front of the villagers and the acts were recorded on camera. Yet, The Print did not cover any of that – as it would mean portraying Mamata’s administration in a poor light.
Unhyphenated journalism at it’s very best.