MUMBAI: A tribal woman was allegedly stripped naked and beaten up by four people at Bhangaon village in Shrigonda tehsil of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra when she tried to save her husband whom they were assaulting.
This happened on September 14, but came to light on Wednesday after a video clip of the incident went viral on social media. The video shows the 35-year-old woman, who belongs to the Pardhi community, and her husband being beaten with sticks by the accused.
After an initial delay, police had registered the woman’s complaint against the four men. But no arrests have been made in the case yet.
According to the woman, her goat entered the farm of one of the accused, Jaysing Wagaskar, leading to an altercation between him and her husband. Three relative of Wagaskar joined him and started beating her husband. When she tried to intervene, she, too, was assaulted, groped and her clothes were torn off.
The accused also passed abusive comments over the couple’s caste, the police said.
The four accused have been booked under the stringent SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, apart from various Sections of the IPC.
The incident was recorded on mobile phone by an unidentified person and uploaded on social media, the police have said.
The victim in her statement said the local police initially refused to register her complaint. It was registered only after two days when she reached the deputy SP’s office.
The Pardhi community has traditionally been a hunting tribe and has been categorised as a nomadic tribe that had been branded as criminals by the British in 1871.