A married woman in Gujarat’s Surendranagar was gang-raped and beaten during a forced purification ritual after she left her husband. Police arrested nine people, including her husband, after a video of the abuse surfaced online. Surendranagar SP Premsukh Delu said, "Police received the video showing the woman and her companion."
A married woman in Gujarat’s Surendranagar was allegedly gang-raped and subjected to brutal physical abuse under the guise of a “purification” ritual after she left her husband and went to live with another man. Police have arrested nine people, including the woman’s husband, in connection with the incident.
According to the information provided by Surendranagar police, the woman had left her husband and started living with another man. Her husband and his family objected to the relationship and locked her inside their house, illegally confining her. When she managed to escape, the accused followed her and found her with the man she had gone to live with.
The woman and the man were then brought back to Surendranagar in the name of a “purification” ritual. The woman was tied to a tree, while the accused assaulted her with wooden sticks and kicked her. The man accompanying her was then forced to rape her while the accused watched and recorded the incident.
The accused also photographed and filmed the abuse. A video showing the woman and the man being subjected to the alleged assault was later circulated on social media, prompting the police to launch a search operation.
Surendranagar SP Premsukh Delu said police received the video showing the woman and her companion being subjected to harassment and abuse, following which an investigation was launched.
According to Delu, police first traced the woman and questioned her. During the inquiry, she told police that she had left her husband to live with another man and that her husband had subsequently caught her and kept her confined inside the house. After she escaped again, people from the village pursued her and caught her with the man.
Police said the accused then subjected the woman to sexual violence in the name of “purification” because she had left her husband and gone away with another man.
Two women were also involved in the assault, police said. In all, nine accused have been arrested.