JAIPUR: A young man in Rajasthan was tied to a tree and severely beaten when he had gone to meet his lover on the night of Karwa Chauth. Recently, Rajasthan had become the first state to pass a bill on honour killing and the police in the state had asked the youth to romance without any worry through its social media campaigns.
The shocking incident happened in the Vanja village of the tribal district of Dungarpur in south Rajasthan. On the night of October 17 going into the morning of October 18, the young man named Bhupendra, son of one Arjunlal Katara had gone to meet his lover who had told him over the telephone that she had kept the Karwa Chauth fast and needed to meet him.
When the couple were meeting at a Veternary Hospital about one kilometre from the girl’s home, her family members suddenly turned up and started shouting on seeing the young duo.
When the young man tried to escape, the girl’s father and brother allegedly caught hold of him and started thrashing him mercilessly. Soon they tied the youth to a Neem tree outside their home and kept beating him all through the night.
In the morning, when the police were informed about the incident, a group of policemen from the Vanja Police Chowki arrived and finally got the youngster freed. After that, the police got medical treatment for the young man and soon even his family arrived to save the man. The station officer Parmeshwar Patidar is now holding a detailed probe on this issue.
The Rajasthan Assembly had passed a bill in August this year to deal with honour killings, becoming the first state to do so. The bill has a provision of life imprisonment if someone is found guilty. Campaigned aggressively through tweets from the official portal of the Rajasthan police, officials had run a special drive so that young lovers feel secure and protected.
In one of the tweets, it was said that : "If you try to inflict physical trauma to a loving couple, then according to the Rajasthan Government's #HonourKilling Bill 2019, you can be sentenced to life imprisonment up to death penalty and a fine of up to Rs 5 lakh, because Love is not a crime."
How much this new Act will help and how strongly will the administration act to protect young lovers will now be on test in this case from Dungarpur district.