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Woman beaten up, tonsured and externed from village in Bihar for talking to co-villager
The 32-year-old woman said she was talking to a co-villager on Tuesday when her neighbours started beating her up.
A woman was on Wednesday assaulted, tonsured, paraded around a Bihar village and then externed for allegedly talking to another person with whom she was suspected of having an illicit relationship, police said.
The 32-year-old woman of Barakala in Gaya district has named four villagers in the FIR registered with Kothi police station, about 80km from the Gaya town.
In her complaint, the woman said she was talking to a the man around 8pm on Tuesday when her neighbours started beating her up.
“As the man with whom I was talking to fled, the neighbours questioned my character, accused me of having an illicit relationship with him and forced me to go inside my house. Fearing further attacks, I spent a sleepless night with my three minor children—two daughters and a son,” she said.
“They returned to my house on Wednesday morning and assaulted me before leaving me near Ranjeeta hills outside the village,” she added.
Her husband had left Barakala three years ago and had not returned since then, she said, adding that the man she was talking to had been a frequent visitor to her house.
Kothi police station SHO Santosh Kumar Singh said efforts were underway arrest the accused. The woman was now under the protection of police, he added.
In the highly conservative and patriarchal societies in Indian villages, women often face such atrocity, most of the time over trivial issues. Women abandoned by their husbands also often face questions on their characters. Activists say, most incidents are not reported to police as the victims fear retaliation later.
