India: Woman thrashed, forced to carry husband on her shoulder as punishment, over alleged affair

Dubai: A woman in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was allegedly forced to carry her husband on her shoulders, thrashed and paraded in public, as punishment, over suspicion of having an extramarital affair. The incident that happened in a village in the state's Jhabua district, has angered many social media users in the country.

A video of the tribal woman being punished in public glare, by men wielding sticks on the road went viral, on Friday, with many questioning the existence of such archaic, and cruel punishments in the 21st century.

Twitter user @Nims_Ahuja shared the video and posted: "A woman shamed, forced to carry husband, and walk while villagers shot videos. Why? Because her husband suspected her of having an affair. #NewIndia #WomenEmpowerment"

https://twitter.com/Nims_Ahuja/status/1288766463889702912

In the video, the woman can be seen as being forced by men, to carry her husband on shoulder, while the crowd of men and children heckle her.

The video also shows that when the woman struggled to walk carrying her husband for long, she was beaten with sticks and forced to continue.

Children and others in the crowd can be heard laughing and while capturing videos of the "punishment".

After the incident went viral on Twitter, the Jhabua Kotwali Police took cognizance of the matter, and book seven men, including the woman's husband.

According to Jhabua Kotwali police station in-charge Narendra Singh Gadaria, the incident happened in Chhapri Ranwas village on Wednesday evening.

Reportedly, the woman and her husband, who worked as migrant labourers in the adjoining state of Gujarat, had returned back to their village recently.

Upon their return, the woman's husband accused her of having extra-marital relations with a co-worker. Subsequently, her in-laws and other neighbours in the village decided to punish her publicly.

According to an Indian news report, Jhabua-based senior journalist and political analyst Chandrabhan Singh Bhadoriya, said that such cruel punishments aren't new in Jhabua, Alirajpur, and Dhar district. "They are the unwritten cruel punishment code in these three tribal-dominated districts of MP. Even public representatives don't dare to interfere in or condemn such acts with woman fearing it would hurt them electorally," the journalist added.

Last year, another such incident was reported in April, in which a woman had to carry her husband as punishment for marrying a man from a different cast.

https://twitter.com/KiranParashar21/status/1117329552756207617