BHOPAL: A shocking incident of tribals punishing a mother of three in full public glare over alleged extramarital affair has been reported in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh.
A 4.44-minute video showing the woman being punished by men wielding sticks on the road has gone viral.
In the video, the woman is shown being forced by the men to carry her husband on shoulder, while the crowd of men and kids jeer and heckle her.
The video further shows that when the woman struggles to walk with her husband on the shoulder for long, she is beaten with sticks and forced to carry him again on shoulders.
In the same video, children accompanying the crowd are seen laughing and capturing video of the criminal act.
Taking cognizance of the matter, seven men, including the woman's husband, have been booked by Jhabua Kotwali Police.
According to Jhabua Kotwali police station in-charge Narendra Singh Gadaria, the incident happened in Chhapri Ranwas village on Wednesday evening. The primary probe has revealed that the woman and her husband, who work as labourers in adjoining Gujarat, returned home recently.
The woman's husband subsequently accused the woman of having extra-marital relations with a co-worker, after which the family and other villagers decided to punish her publicly.
According to a Jhabua-based senior journalist and political analyst Chandrabhan Singh Bhadoriya, such cruel punishments aren't new in Jhabua, Alirajpur, and Dhar district. "They are the unwritten cruel punishment code in these three tribal-dominated districts of MP. Even public representatives don't dare to interfere in or condemn such acts with woman fearing it would hurt them electorally," said Bhadoriya.