- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, April 18, 2022 : In yet another incident of ‘moral policing’, a man and woman suspected to have an illicit relationship was thrashed and humiliated by mob at a village under Teliamura police station in Tripura’s Khowai district on Saturday night.
However, police rescued the man and woman from the clutches of the angry mob, and the woman is undergoing treatment at a sub-divisional hospital while no arrests have been made so far.
A group of villagers led by the suspected woman’s husband under Teliamura police station, 42 KMs away from state capital of Agartala, in Madhya Krishnapur Balu Cherra area of Khowai district, thrashed the woman and the man, beaten them black and blue and later forced them to marry each other, all because she was alleged to having an illicit relationship with one of her neighbours.
Such examples of ‘instant justice’ is not new in Tripura. A similar incident took place in Tata Kalibari Chandrapur of Agartala in 2014.
It is reported that, Arushpriya Biswas, wife of Jitendra Biswas, a resident of Madhya Krishnapur Balu Cherra area of Teliamura police station, is suspected to have an illicit relationship with Haradhan Mallik, a resident of the same area for a long time. Both the men and women were detained by the agitated people of the area and beaten severely. It is learned that they were forced to marry on Saturday night.
Local sources said, Arushpriya Biswas, wife of Jitendra Biswas, who is in her forties, left the house on Saturday saying that she was going to her daughter’s father-in-law’s house. But according to the news, the woman did not go to her daughter’s house.
Later, the villagers around 15 of them including Arushpriya’s husband reached Haradhan Mallik’s house to search for her. Haradhan and Arushpriya were grabbed by the woman’s husband along with the locals. They dragged the two out of the house and brought them to the empty paddy field in front of the house and beat them severely.
At one point, both lost consciousness as a result of the beating and the woman’s nose and mouth began to bleed. Even then, the locals did not give up. After the woman regained consciousness, Haradhan Mallik, a man in his fifties, was forced into marriage.
The news was sent to Teliamura police station. Police rushed to the spot and rescued Arushpriya and Haradhan and brought them to Teliamura Sub-Divisional Hospital for treatment. The on-duty doctor saw Arushpriya’s condition critical and she was admitted to Teliamura Sub-Divisional Hospital for better treatment. Haradhan was released after initial treatment. The woman is undergoing treatment at Teliamura Sub-Divisional Hospital.
The Teliamura Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) – Sona Charan Jamatia told Northeast Today “A team of police personnel will be sent to meet the victim and note down the actual incident. However, we did not receive any written complaint. But an enquiry will be done into the alleged incident that took place at Balucherra area”.
Now the only question looming in the conscious quarters is what actually happened in the field of vacant paddy land in Madhya-Krishnapur Baluchhara of Teliamura police station. The entire thing will come out through the police investigation.
Confessing to beating her wife and another man, the husband said “I took her to Teliamura hospital for treatment after the incident, and spent the whole night there. The police visited my residence.”
Condemning the alleged incident, Chairperson of the Tripura Commission for Women (TCW) Barnali Goswami said “Such gruesome torture on a woman cannot be tolerated in a civilized society. The Commission is sending a team shortly to meet the victim and to know the real incident happened on the night of Saturday last.”