Gujarat woman chained, assaulted in name of ‘purification’
The ten people arrested in connection with the alleged “punishment-cum-purification ritual”.
By Sakshi
New Delhi, October 9: A 25-year-old woman in Gujarat’s Surendranagar was allegedly subjected to sexual abuse by her live-in partner at her husband’s behest as part of a “punishment-cum-purification ritual”. She had also been chained at home several times in the past to prevent her from fleeing with other men, police said on Friday. Ten people have been arrested in the case so far.
The woman was married to 45-year-old Popat Sarvaiya when she was 17. She had fled with one of her husband’s relatives on three to four occasions and had briefly lived with him, Assistant Superintendent of Police Vedika Bihani, who led the investigation, told PTI.
“However, her husband would repeatedly track her down, bring her back, and chain her up at home. Her husband is 45-46 years old, while she is 20 years his junior. The man has children from his first wife who are the same age as the victim,” Bihani said.
The ten people arrested in connection with the alleged “punishment-cum-purification ritual” include Sarvaiya. They belong to the Devipujak community, a Denotified Tribe (DNT), police said.
The latest arrest was that of the woman’s stepson, who allegedly uploaded a video of the ritual on his Instagram account, bringing the woman’s ordeal to the police’s attention.
According to police, the accused claimed that the acts were a “common practice” when a married woman eloped.
“The accused claimed it is a tradition of social purification to force the woman to engage in sexual acts with the man she had eloped with,” Superintendent of Police Premsukh Delu had earlier said.
“Her husband always kept her in chains. This time, there were four locks on her chains, and she had managed to get the keys to three of them. One lock was still fastened to her chains when she fled,” the police officer said.
The man with whom the woman had eloped also belongs to her husband’s extended family. The two travelled to various locations in Surendranagar and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, Bihani added.
“No one had formally reported the matter to us. We received a tip-off after someone saw the video, and we subsequently rescued the woman,” Bihani said.
Another police official said the accused included two women and several relatives of the victim’s husband.
According to police, on October 4, the accused attacked the woman and her live-in partner with sticks, kicks and punches. They allegedly tied the woman to a thorny acacia tree with a rope and forced the man to perform humiliating sexual acts on her. The accused also allegedly forced him to drink the woman’s urine, recorded the incident and circulated the video on social media.
Charges Against the Accused
The accused have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for offences including gang rape, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful confinement and wrongful concealment of the confinement of a kidnapped person, among other charges. They have also been charged under the Information Technology Act, police said.
(Inputs from PTI)
