Four women were arrested for allegedly beating up, stripping, and parading a 30-year-old woman over a dispute at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district, news agency PTI reported citing police on Wednesday.
As per the report, a video of the purported incident that occurred during the Holi celebrations also surfaced on social media.
On Monday, four women forcibly pulled the victim out of her house, beat her up, and humiliated her by stripping her naked in public at Bachhora village of Gautampura police station area, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sunil Mehta told PTI. All four accused women were later arrested.
As per the report, the officer visited the village today and reported that the situation is under control now. He further said that due to the humiliation, the victim had gone to her parents' home.
According to PTI, one of the accused suspected that the victim was instigating her mother-in-law against her.
She further suspected that the victim had taken her mother-in-law to Mandsaur without informing her. The victim and the accused women belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, the police told PTI.
According to the PTI report, some onlookers in the village shot a video of the humiliating act and circulated it. These people are being identified and appropriate legal steps will be taken against them, he said. Eyewitnesses said the accused women dragged the victim out of her house and stripped her.
The report said that the victim woman kept pleading for mercy at the time of the incident, but the accused did not relent and they openly stripped her by tearing her clothes.
The police also took her to some distance on the common road of the village in the same condition, the report said.
A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354-A (sexual harassment) and 452 (wrongfully restraining and assaulting), PTI reported citing a police officer familiar with the matter.