Woman, Two Men Tied To Pole, Thrashed In Odisha Village Over ‘Illicit Affair’
Jashipur police rushed to the spot after being alerted and rescued the victims, who were later admitted to Jashipur Medical for treatment. A case has been registered, and two suspects were detained for questioning. Efforts were on to identify others involved in the assault.
Bhubaneswar: In yet another case of mob justice in Odisha, a woman and two men were brutally assaulted after being tied to an electric pole on suspicion of an “illicit relationship” in Mayurbhanj district’s Jashipur block, reports said on Saturday.
The incident occurred in Begunia village on Friday evening. Police said the woman had called two relatives from Kashipal to assist her with shopping in Jashipur. While returning to her village on a motorcycle around 4 pm, the trio was intercepted at the village square by locals, including members of the woman’s family.
Accusing them of an extra-marital affair, the villagers dragged all three to an open field, bound them to a pole, and thrashed them with sticks, slippers and rods. Eyewitnesses described the attack as “inhuman” and “barbaric.”
Jashipur police rushed to the spot after being alerted and rescued the victims, who were later admitted to Jashipur Medical for treatment. A case has been registered, and two suspects were detained for questioning. Efforts were on to identify others involved in the assault.
The incident has triggered outrage among rights activists, who decried the persistence of kangaroo court-style punishments in rural Odisha. The local police was yet to issue an official statement.
In another instance of mob justice on September 9, a woman schoolteacher in Odisha’s Puri district was assaulted, garlanded with slippers, and paraded through the streets by her husband and others on September 9 after being accused of having an extramarital affair. Her companion, also a teacher, was subjected to similar humiliation, with videos of the incident widely circulated on social media.
According to reports, the woman had been living separately from her husband, a college lecturer, due to marital discord and was staying in a rented house in the Nimapada area. Around 8 pm, her husband, accompanied by a group of associates, allegedly stormed into her residence on suspicion of infidelity.
Inside, he reportedly found her with a male colleague. Video footage shows the woman being dragged out by her husband, beaten, garlanded with slippers, and forced to walk through the streets as onlookers watched. Her companion was stripped to his underwear and subjected to the same treatment.
The duo was eventually made to march towards the local police station, trailed by a jeering crowd, as bystanders captured the incident on their phones.