A Dalit woman was allegedly stripped, beaten-up and urinated upon by a moneylender, his son and others over ₹1,500 loan interest in Bihar. The woman has sustained serious injuries and admitted to a primary health centre for treatment. Chief minister Nitish Kumar said stern action would be taken against the perpetrators as he has instructed officials to look into the case on “priority basis”.
The incident has happened at Mosimpur village under Khusrupur Police station in Patna district late on Saturday (September 23) night.
The woman in her 30s has lodged complained at the Khusrupur police station saying she was beaten-up, stripped and urinated upon by Pramod Singh, his son Anshu Singh and three-four other unidentified persons late on September 23 night. The women in her complaint also has said that her husband, a casual worker, had taken loan of ₹1,500 from Pramod Singh few months back and had repaid it with interest but the money lender continued to seek more interest from them at regular intervals.
“On Saturday night, September 23, when I was taking water from village hand pump, Pramod Singh and his son Anshu Singh came and summoned me to an isolated place where they beat me up, tried to disrobe me and the son also urinated upon me. Three-four other persons were also there. Somehow, I managed to escape from there,” the woman informed told the police. The woman who does casual works for living along with her husband, got head and thigh injuries in the assault.
The local police immediately registered a case against the principal accused, Pramod Singh, Anshu Singh as well as other unidentified persons under the relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections and sections under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention and Atrocities) Act. “We’re investigating all aspects of the case and conducting raids at several places to arrest the accused persons who are absconding after the incident. We’ve formed five-teams to nab the accused persons,” said Patna Senior Superintendent of Police, Rajeev Mishra. The injured woman is admitted at Primary Health Centre for treatment.
A local police official, on condition of anonymity, though told The Hindu that “it was an incident of assault and thrashing, not of stripping or disrobing”. Some local also informed local presspersons that the woman was not stripped. However, a relative of the injured woman, asserted she was not only brutally beaten-up but also stripped and urinated upon by Pramod Singh, his son and aides. “We’re poor people and cannot get loans from banks so we take loans from money lenders who are strong men of the village and subsequently, often face such humiliations,” he told to a local media persons.
Meanwhile, when media persons asked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the incident in Patna, he said ,“Stern action will be taken against those involved in the assault on the woman in Khusrupur”.
“I’ve given instruction to police and administration to take up such incident on a priority basis”, Mr. Kumar added.
