Woman tied to tree, flogged in UP on panchayat’s order
MEERUT : A woman was allegedly tied to a tree and flogged in public by her husband on a village panchayat’s order for eloping with another man in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district, police said on Thursday.
Police said three people were arrested, including a former panchayat head, his son, and the woman’s husband, after a video clip of the incident was widely circulated on social media and messaging apps. Hindustan Times could not independently verify the authenticity of the video clip.
The incident occurred on March 10 at Launga village, about 400km from Lucknow.
Bulandshahr superintendent of police Praveen Ranjan Singh said a case has been registered against 18 people, 12 of them unidentified, based on the video clip.
Police contacted the woman, said to be in her late 20s, at her parents’ house Wednesday night.
“Former pradhan Shersingh, his son Shravan and the woman’s husband Shaudan Singh have been arrested while raids are underway to arrest other accused,” the SP said.
The 73-second video clip, apparently shot on a mobile phone, purportedly shows the saree-clad woman’s hands tied to an overhead branch of a tree and being repeatedly hit with what appears to be a leather belt by a man in a green shirt and a jacket.
The video also shows a large crowd of men watching the beating and some of them can even be heard berating the woman.
Police said the panchayat wanted to “teach a lesson to her”.
In her complaint, the woman told the police she eloped with a man from her neighbourhood on March 5 and stayed at the house of one of his relatives.
After five days, a group of people from Launga convinced the couple to return to their village.
Police said Shersingh and his supporters convened a ‘kangaroo court’ and ordered her public flogging. Some of the villagers had reportedly objected but they were abused and asked to leave.
After the beating, the woman was dragged into a room where Shersingh and his supporters allegedly molested her and asked her to keep silent.