A couple was allegedly beaten up all night on June 23 in Jhumurmur village in Assam in what seems to be another case of moral policing. According to the Nagaon district police, the villagers shaved the woman’s head and tore their clothes for having an ‘illicit relationship’. The villagers said that the man and the woman were married to other people and had been cheating on their spouses. The couple was tortured through the night and police found them in a badly-injured state when a few villagers informed them about the incident early in the morning.
The police have since arrested 8 people after conducting interrogations.
Rising incidences of moral policing in Assam
The recent case of moral policing is just one of many to have occurred over the last few months in the northeastern state.
- On June 18, a mob waylaid and assaulted an unmarried couple who had been travelling on a motorcycle in Goalpara district. The brother of the man later claimed that the villagers forced the two to get married. A freelance journalist was also threatened for exposing the case.
- Last week, Darrang police arrested a person for leading a mob attack on a youth on June 9. The victim alleged that he was thrashed and tortured by the family members of a girl he was in a relationship with. He said that the mob stripped him and started beating him despite repeated appeals.
- Two men were lynched in Karbi Anglong by a group of irate villagers on June 8 who suspected them of being child-lifters. Over 200 bikers from across the northeast converged at Khanapara on June 24 to protest against the mob lynching.
- On April 8, a mob brutally thrashed a Garo tribal woman for riding pillion on the bike of a Muslim man in Goalpara district. The assailants filmed the incident and uploaded the video on social media after which the police arrested 12 men near the Assam-Meghalaya border.
