55-yr-old woman gets assaulted, paraded semi-naked in Punjab

Tarn Taran/Punjab: In Punjab's Valtoha village, a group of people assaulted a 55-year-old woman and paraded her semi-naked in public. The group, which was allegedly her son's in-laws, allegedly assaulted the woman after her son got married against the bride's parent's wishes, PTI reported, citing the police's account.

The unfortunate ordeal the old woman had gone through happened on March 31, a few days after her son eloped with a woman from the accused's family. A purported video of her being paraded in public cropped up on social media on Friday, police informed.

The victim had lodged a complaint with the police, in which she said that she was alone at her home when the cruelty she suffered. In-laws of her son assaulted her inside her home and tore off her clothes. Later, they paraded her in the village semi-naked.

Police said that they have booked five people for the incident, and three of them have been identified as Kulwinder Kaur Mani, Sharanjit Singh Shanni, and Gurcharan Singh.

An FIR was registered based on the victim's complaint on April 3 under the Indian Penal Code sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 354D (stalking), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 149 (unlawful assembly). However, no arrests were made so far.

This incident cannot be said to be an isolated one in the country, where women are being assaulted, thrashed and paraded naked. It was in December last, an old woman was beaten and paraded nude in public in Karnataka's Belagav in a similar case where her son eloped with a girl against the girl's family's wishes.