AURANGABAD: A 35-year-old man was stripped, flogged and paraded across the Teesgaon Tanda village for allegedly eloping with a married woman from the same village.
Based on the complaint filed by the man, the Khultabad police have booked some villagers for voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation.
Police station inspector Tukaram Mehetre said the offence is of non-cognizable nature, but no one has been arrested yet.
“The complainant is married and has children. He had eloped with a 30-year-old woman in January. Missing complaints were then filed with the police by their respective families,” he said.
“A month later, the duo came to the police and stated that they wanted to live together. As a result, the missing complaints were closed and their families were informed. Due to opposition to their relationship and family pressure, the couple moved to Kannad and started living there,” he added.
On July 2, when the man returned to o his village, some people from the woman’s family decided to teach him a lesson. A video of the entire incident was recorded by the villagers and posted on social media platforms.
An officer privy to the probe said after the video was found in circulation, police contacted the man but he was under tremendous stress and trauma and refused to give an additional statement on the video.
Sources said permission is being sought to add sections of the Information and Technology Act for the recording and uploading of video on social media. Adding this section will make the offence cognizable and non-bailable.
