A woman – legs bound – was tied to a motorcycle and dragged, screaming for help, across rubble and rocky ground for several seconds by her husband in Rajasthan‘s Nagaur district.
Then the man gets off his bike and stands over the woman, who is injured, in pain, and crying from the physical and mental trauma of the past few seconds, and sullenly surveys his ‘handiwork’. The arrogant pose – hands on hips as the woman writhes at his feet – underlines the shocking abuse Indian women face.
A 40-second video of the assault – believed to have been perpetrated last month – has been shared online and reveals a stomach-churning detail.
Not one person – and there were at least three people, including another woman and the man (presumably) who filmed the attack – intervened. Not one person from the village, to the gates of which the husband dragged his wife, emerged.
The horrific video also underlines the violence Indian women face on a daily basis, and emerges as the country is up in arms over yet another in a long list of such atrocities – the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
So far as the Rajasthan video is concerned, it is unclear who the man is.
There are reports that suggest he is the husband and attacked his wife because she wanted to visit her sister in Jaisalmer. It could, however, also be a case of bride being ‘bought’ – a reference to an appalling custom of ‘buying’ a wife from another state, reported from districts like Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, and Pali.
Women ‘purchased’ in this manner suffer the worst of physical, mental, and sexual abuse from their ‘husband’ and, in many cases, from other men in the village. They are consigned to the status of forced labour in the farms and forced into doing housework, and serving to satisfy the ‘husband’ in bed.
Local police say they will investigate both angles, the second of which is human trafficking.
Sources told NDTV the woman may have been ‘bought’ by the man – identified as Prem Ram Meghwal, in his 40s, unemployed, and reportedly addicted to drugs – around 10 months ago for Rs 2 lakh
The police have taken him into custody and have contacted the woman, now in Jaisalmer.
A FIR has been filed and the person who filmed the attack but did not intervene will be prosecuted too. “We have taken the matter very seriously. It is believed the man and the woman had some dispute as she wanted to go to her sister. We have contacted her… she will be coming to Nagaur, after which we will take further action,” Nagaur Police Superintendent Narayan Togas told NDTV.
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