BHOPAL: A young mother of four kids who allegedly eloped with a man last month, but returned home on Saturday, was punished by husband and other family members in an unimaginable manner.
The 28-year-old tribal woman was forced to parade with husband seated on her shoulders for nearly a kilometer.
She, however, managed to comply with the punishment pronounced by her in-laws, out of the fear that inability to complete it would see her thrown out of the family forever.
The chilling episode which happened in Khedi village in Pitol area of Jhabua district (400 km from Bhopal) on Saturday evening became public after a video of the incident went viral over the social media on Sunday evening.
“We have booked six members of the woman’s in-laws family, including her husband. Some unidentified persons too were booked in the matter. The case was lodged under Sections 147, 149, 323 and 354 of IPC against the identified and unidentified accused. By Monday evening, we’ve arrested five of the six identified accused and three of the unidentified accused,” Jhabua district police superintendent Mahesh Chandra Jain told the New Indian Express.
Police investigations revealed that the woman, who hails from the Bheel tribe (the dominant tribe in tribal dominated Jhabua district) had allegedly eloped with a man on October 23 to another village.
Once back, the woman was asked by in-laws to face punishment of carrying husband on shoulders to house, failing which she would be thrown out of the family. Not left with any other option, the woman was forced to fulfill the cruel wishes of in-laws which had full-fledged support of her smiling husband as well.
“She was subsequently made to seat her husband on shoulders and walk home with his weight,” said SP Jhabua.
None of the villagers tried to intervene and help the woman, who was beaten by villagers, including in-laws as she carried smiling hubby all the way to the house, around a kilometer away. The entire savage act was filmed by villagers with cell-phones. Its video-clips subsequently went viral over social media, prompting the police to act in the matter.