The Assam Police have arrested eight people for assaulting and confining a couple through the night on Saturday, allegedly for having an affair, The Hindu reported on Monday.
A mob of villagers from Jhumurmur in the state’s Nagaon district also shaved the woman’s head in the apparent case of moral policing, the police told PTI.
“The police were intimated by some people during morning hours,” Nagaon district Additional Superintendent of Police Ripul Das said on Sunday. “Our team rushed to the spot and the villagers handed over them [the couple] to us. They were badly injured and were admitted to a hospital.” The man is still in a critical condition, police told The Hindu.
A police officer said the villagers claimed the couple were in an illicit relationship after the man, from neighbouring Tubuki village, visited the woman at her home in Jhumurmur on Saturday night. “The man tried to flee but was caught by the villagers. Then both of them were thrashed by the villagers,” the officer said. “The woman’s head was shaved by other women of the village. Their clothes were torn and they were tortured through the night.”
They were both married to different people and were cheating on their spouses, the officer cited the villagers as saying.
This is the third incident of mob violence in Assam this month. On June 17, a group of around 20 people assaulted a couple for travelling together and forced them to get married in the state’s Goalpara district. On June 8, a mob in Karbi Anglong village lynched two men on suspicion that they were kidnappers.
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