A 48-year-old woman and her newly-wed 19-year-old daughter were punished in Vaishali’s Bihari village for protesting against a ‘rape bid’ by a local ward councillor.
According to the police, the ward councillor Mohammad Khurshid and his henchmen laid hands on the women and attacked them, shaved their head and then paraded them across the village. The ward councillor, a barber and three other people were detained by the police on Thursday, after a video of the incident spread like wildfire on social media.
Sanjay Kumar who is a station house officer (SHO) of the Bhagwanpur police station confirmed the incident and said that the matter is now under investigation.
He added that half a dozen people sneaked into the victims’ house and made an attempt to rape the daughter. After the mother tried to rescue her daughter, the accused physically assaulted the two women at the spot.
One of the accused smashed them with wooden sticks and then dragged them outside their house and held a ‘panchayat’. Khurshid then called a barber and instructed him to shave the women’s heads, and paraded them across the village.
“Around 6.30 pm, half a dozen armed men forcibly entered my house and attempted to rape me. When my mother tried to save me, they started beating us,” the one of the victims told the police.
Eyewitnesses say that Khurshid alleged that the duo was involved in a flesh trade racket.
A case has been lodged against seven people under sections 376 (punishment for rape), 511 (punishment for attempting)