Tribal woman stripped naked, paraded in Rajasthan; 8, including husband, detained
Jaipur: Rajasthan Police have detained eight people, including the husband of a 20-year-old tribal woman, after she was allegedly stripped naked and paraded at a village in Pratapgarh district, officials said on Saturday.
After the video of the shocking incident on August 31 went viral on social media Friday night, the police have said that the victim woman was pregnant.
Banswara range IG S Parimala said that the husband who is the key accused was enraged after the victim woman, who is four to five months pregnant, had gone to live with her lover two weeks ago.
“For the past one year, she was living with the accused, her second husband,” the IG said.
Pratapgarh SP Amit Kumar Budaniya said on Saturday that the woman’s husband and the family of her in-laws were angry with her because she had been living with another man for some time. “Her husband, along with his associates reached the place where the woman was staying with the other man and abducted her before she was stripped and paraded,” the officer said.
The SP added that both the victim and the accused belong to a tribal community.
Rajasthan DGP Umesh Mishra said Saturday that those detained include a juvenile and three people who witnessed the crime.
“The woman was earlier married to another man. Thereafter, as part of the custom of ‘Nata Pratha’, she started living with a second man, who is the main accused in the case. The woman was now living with a third man, which had enraged the second partner, who committed the crime along with his associates. There are around 12-13 accused in the case, of which 10 accused are named,” said SP Budaniya.
The police said that three of the detained people had been taken to the district hospital in Pratapgarh after they sustained injuries after trying to dodge the police who were chasing them.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has vowed strict action in the matter saying that the accused will be arrested and tried in fast-track courts.
The Opposition BJP has slammed the Congress government in Rajasthan over the incident.
Rajasthan DGP Mishra said that the family of the in-laws of the woman had brought her to the village, where the crime took place.
The Rajasthan police said that a case has been registered under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with sections of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act and 67A IT Act.
