Bihar: Nine held as three women tonsured, paraded half-naked in Muzaffarpur

PATNA: The Muzaffarpur police on Tuesday arrested nine people for allegedly thrashing and tonsuring the heads of three women on suspicion of practising witchcraft. The incident had occurred at Dakrama village under the Hathauri police station area in the district on Monday evening. The scared victims have abandoned their houses and shifted elsewhere.
Muzaffarpur SSP Jayant Kant said nine people, including prime accused Shyam Sahni, have been arrested and raids are on to nab six others named in the FIR.Around 100 unidentified people have also been made accused as they remained mute spectators to the indient.
A video showing three women aged 45, 50 and 55 years being thrashed by a mob and their heads being tonsured had gone viral on the social media. The victims were also paraded half-naked and made to consume human excreta in full public view.
Locals said the women were subjected to torture on the directive of some people’s representatives, who were earlier approached by the family members of two minor children who had died under mysterious circumstances.
“The incident took place around 6pm on Monday and the police arrested nine of the 15 named accused on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. The barber, who had tonsured the heads of the women, is absconding,” the SSP said.
He, however, lamented that there was no police chowkidar at the village, which is far off from the district headquarters. Moreover, neither the mukhiya nor sarpanch or any ward member informed the police about the incident, which took place despite nationwide lockdown and social distancing in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.
SHO of Hathauri police station Jitendra Deo Deepak said the mob forced the victims to consume human excreta and paraded them half-naked in the village after tonsuring their heads. “The police lodged the complaint on the basis of the video, which has been sent to the regional forensic science laboratory at Muzaffarpur,” he added.
Panchayat head of the village Ravindra Baitha said, “I was not present in my house at the time of the incident. I came to know about the incident when I returned home around 2am.”
Condemning the incident, senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari said, “The incident shows that there is no rule of law in the state. It is strange how a large number of people gathered at the spot amid lockdown.”
Former BJP MLA from Aurai Ram Surat Rai had also demanded action against the culprits.
(The victims' identity has not been revealed to protect their privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)