In a horrific incident in Bihar, an 18-year old Muslim girl was tied to a tree and thrashed mercilessly for five hours, reportedly on the orders of the local panchayat in Jogiya Maran village of Bihar’s Nawada district. The incident happened on Friday, and the ‘crime’ of the girl was that she had ‘run away’ with a Hindu man she loved.
According to India today, the 18-year old girl, daughter of Mohammad Farid Ansari of Jogiya Maran village under Rajauli police station fell in love and had run away with her boyfriend Rupesh Kumar on September 30. The girl had left the village and was living with the boy.
Nawada: Girl was tied to a tree and thrashed for hours today on a Panchayat’s diktat for eloping with a man on September 30. Father says, ‘she was tied because she is a criminal. She wants to go with a man from another caste’. #Bihar pic.twitter.com/62tzrV2rtp
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2018
Reportedly, the villagers caught and brought her to back to her village, where the village panchayat directed the family to tie the girl to a tree and thrash her for dishonouring the village. The villagers looked on to the girl being thrashed, while the girl fainted multiple times after she was purportedly thrashed for nearly five hours. Shockingly, the parents of the girl supported the thrashing of the girl. They also stood with other villagers and watched her being thrashed. The incident was shot and became viral in the social media instantly.
The media reports, however, were conflicting. While ANI and other media outlets said that the incident occurred because of ‘inter-caste’ affair, India Today reported that the incident occurred because of a Muslim girl falling in love with a Hindu man. While in local, colloquial matter of speech, ‘jaati’ could refer to religion as well.
However, since there were contradictory media reports on whether the girl was punished for inter-caste or inter-faith love affair, OpIndia had reached out to the concerned police station and the SHO while speaking to Opindia, refuted media reports concerning Panchayat’s order to thrash the Muslim girl.
He said, “The girl was tied to the tree by her brother and other members of the family. The family members of the girl just tied her to the tree and did not thrash her. The village panchayat has no role in this incident”. He further said that Rupesh Kumar is on the run and they are yet to register an FIR relating to the case.
The victim gave a statement to the media later saying that she had her run away with that man, a resident of Balia on her own will. However, the girl’s father Mohammad Farid Ansari said that the punishment being given to his daughter’s ‘crime’ was justified.
