Madhya Pradesh: Woman Punished For Extra-Marital Affair; Forced To Carry Husband On Shoulders

A tribal woman in Madhya Pradesh received a bizarre punishment for having an extra-marital affair. Villagers and in-laws allegedly forced her to carry her husband on her shoulders and walk around in the village as a punishment. The incident happened in tribal-dominated Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. The video of the incident has gone viral on social media. Consequently, the Jhabua Kotawali Police took cognisance of the video and registered a case. The husband has reportedly been arrested and other villagers have also been booked for the criminal act.

Jhabua Kotwali police station in-charge Narendra Singh Gadaria told The New Indian Express that the couple belonged to Chapari Ranvas Village and the woman is a mother of three. Both of them worked as daily wage labourers in Gujarat and had recently moved back to their village in Madhya Pradesh.

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It was then that the husband publicly accused his wife of having an extra-marital affair with a co-worker. The couple started arguing and the matter sparked a furore in the village. After a Panchayat proceeding, the villagers and the woman's in-laws decided to publicly punish and humiliate the woman for having an extra-marital affair. She was forced to carry her husband on her shoulders and walk around the village.

In the video of the incident that has gone viral, the villagers are seen brandishing sticks at the woman and condemning her with aggressive comments because of her alleged extra-marital affair. When the woman struggles to walk and stops carrying him further, the villagers beat her up and forced her to walk again. There are children and other on-lookers in the crowd too who are laughing at the incident and capturing the criminal act on the phones.

The police took a serious note of the video and booked seven men, including the woman’s husband for the criminal and inhumane act on Thursday, July 31, 2020. According to ANI, the husband has already been arrested and the investigation is underway to arrest other accused.

In MP Such Punishments for Extra-marital Affair is Common

The tribal-dominated areas of Madhya Pradesh are infamous for such incidents in which villagers publicly punish women on suspicion of an extra-marital affair. It is done on the account that they have "sinned" and cannot be accepted by their families unless they undergo public humiliation by carrying the husband on their shoulders, TOI reported. Last month, June 2020, in Kheda village of Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, a young tribal woman was beaten up by her marital family and was forced to carry her husband on her shoulders and walk for one hour. She was punished by the villagers for daring to elope with another man. The mob did not offer to help her and rather jeered her and shot videos which went viral. The Kalyanpur police took cognisance of the video and registered a case. Three men were arrested in the case, including the husband.

In April 2019, another video of a woman being paraded in Madhya Pradesh went viral. In Devigaon, villagers announced to publicly shame and punish a woman in her twenties because she allegedly had an affair with another man, reported ANI. She was similarly forced to undergo the same torture with jeering mobs taking selfies. A police probe was ordered in this case too.

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