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Ranchi/Bhopal, June 23 - In two similar but equally heinous crimes, a woman in Jharkhand and a Dalit woman village head in Madhya Pradesh were stripped, beaten and then paraded through their respective villages by locals.
While one incident took place Thursday, the other was reported on Thursday - six days after it occurred. And a day earlier, another Dalit woman was stripped in Bihar by upper caste men who attempted to rape her for refusing to withdraw a police complaint against them
In the Jharkhand incident, Sukari Nayak of Chora village, 30 km from state capital Ranchi, was first stripped by villagers, paraded through the village and then tied to a tree. She was beaten mercilessly by the villagers. Police rescued her late Thursday evening.
The villagers accused Sukari of killing a 12-year-boy Balchand Bhagat. They said Sukari had taken some villagers to Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh to work in a brick kiln factory. Balchand had accompanied her. Sukari returned to the village and told Balchand's parents that he had gone missing from Mugalsarai station.
On Thursday, the villagers dragged her from her house and stripped her. She was beaten up by Balchand's parents. Police have registered a First Information Report against five people, including the parents of the boy.
In the Madhya Pradesh incident, 45-year-old Dalit woman sarpanch (village head) Indira Kushwaha was beaten, stripped and paraded naked through her Mahoikala village in Chattarpur district on June 17 by gun-wielding local goons after she refused to give them Rs.50,000 from the village development fund.
The police, who were supposed to protect her, reportedly refused to help. Indira then sought the help of Samajwadi Party legislator Vijay Bahadur Singh Bundela to register a police complaint four days after the incident. The MLA took her to the district collector.
Indira told reporters at Chhatarpur Thursday: 'They came to my house, thrashed me black and blue and paraded me naked through the whole village at gunpoint.'
'Local goons Lakhan Shukla and Santosh Shukla had been harassing me for the last six months for money. They used to say that I had been given money for the village development since I was the sarpanch. They also said the money should be given to them because I, being a Dalit, would not know how to spend it.'
'On the evening of June 17, when I turned down their demand, the two, armed with rifles, came to my hut, dragged me and my children out and started beating me. Lakhan and his men then stripped me and paraded me naked in the village,' she alleged.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said action would be taken against those involved. He said an inquiry had been initiated.
National Commission for Women chairperson Girija Vyas on Thursday asked the state government to conduct a probe into the incident and submit a report within a week, official sources said.
Sukari Nayak of Jharkhand told police that the boy Balchand had fallen in love with a girl and discovered later that she was in love with another boy. The brick kiln worker had told Sukari to take Balchand back home. When she was bringing him, Balchand fled from Mugalsarai station, perhaps to meet his beloved.
'We have arrested the boy's father and will arrest the others,' said a police official of Chano police station under which the village is located. 'We are trying to trace the missing boy.'
On Wednesday, powerful upper caste men in Beldih village of Bihar's Gopalganj district stripped a Dalit woman and attempted to rape her when she refused to withdraw a police complaint against them.
She managed to escape from her assaulters and informed her family and other villagers.
'After that, a large number of villagers came to her rescue,' said a local police official, adding that a complaint had been filed on the basis of her statement.
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