The Madhya Pradesh Police on Monday arrested four people for allegedly forcing a woman to perform a regressive ritual of carrying her former husband’s brother on her shoulders because she left him for another man, ANI reported.
A video of the incident, which shows a boy perched on the woman’s shoulder as she lunges forward, was widely circulated on social media. The clip also shows villagers, all men, heckling and making fun of her as they march behind her. Some of them even hit her with sticks when she slowed down.
Superintendent of Police Rajiv Mishra told ANI that the incident took place on February 9 in Guna district of the state. “The woman was being punished by her in-laws because she had left her first husband and has started living with another man,” he added. “This is the regressive tradition being followed in the region.”
The state police have registered a case against her former husband, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and a relative for voluntarily causing hurt, abusing, and criminal intimidation, according to the Hindustan Times.
The woman, in her complaint, stated she had separated from her husband by mutual consent, and was in a relationship with another man, according to NDTV.
However, last week members of her ex-husband’s family and others from that village abducted her from her home. They then forced her to perform the humiliating ritual. Some reports said that she was made to walk a distance of three kilometres.
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