Woman stripped and paraded on donkey in Rajasthan village

mangaloretoday.com/ yahoo

JAIPUR, Nov 11: A 45-year-old woman was stripped naked, face blackened and paraded on a donkey on the order of a panchayat at Thurwal village, around 8 km from the temple town of Charbhuja in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district.

The panchayat pronounced the “punishment” after she was accused of killing her nephew by his wife and other family members.

Rajasmand Superintendent of Police (SP) Shweta Dhankar said the trouble started after Vardi Singh died on November 2. “The circumstances of his death could not be known as the villagers cremated his body without informing the police,” the SP said, adding that Singh’s widow suspected that her husband’s aunt killed him.

 

She then approached the local panchayat that heard the case publicly and declared the victim guilty. The woman was stripped and her head shaved at a place in the middle of the village on Saturday. The panchayat members blackened her face and forced her to sit on a donkey. The woman was then paraded through the village for an hour on Saturday evening, Dhankar said.

Thirty people were arrested and nine put under preventive detention on Sunday immediately after the victim’s husband Udai Singh lodged an FIR at the local police station. On Monday, a court sent 26 accused, including a woman, to police remand.

Police said the woman was shifted to a shelter home with protection and was being counselled.

“The woman is in a state of shock. We have provided her security,” the SP said.

A large contingent of police force was deployed in the village. The accused have been booked under various charges, including those related to sexual harassment and unlawful confinement.

The district collector and the police superintendent visited the village on Sunday.