Police in the Surendranagar district of the Indian state of Gujarat have arrested nine people over the illegal confinement, torture and gang rape of a woman, which they say was carried out on the pretext of ritually “purifying” her.
The case came to light after a video spread on social media showing a woman being held, harassed and badly beaten while a crowd around her jeered.
According to police sources, the woman had left her husband and was living with another man. Her husband and several relatives then locked her in a room and chained her. She managed to escape, but they chased and caught her and tied her to a tree with rope. She was then tortured and gang-raped, and the man she was living with was also beaten. The attackers filmed it and put the footage online as a warning to others.
The district’s superintendent of police, Premsukh Delu, said police took up the case on their own after learning of it from local people, as the woman did not at first come to the police station. She was traced in a search based on the video, her statement has been recorded and her safety ensured.
Charges have been brought under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. Two of the nine arrested are women, held on charges of aiding and abetting the crime. Police are looking further into the backgrounds of the accused.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report