Ranchi: Suspected of Conducting Theft, Two Women Beaten, Assaulted by Panchayat

The police traced the victims on Thursday after a video of the assault in which the panchayat members brutally beat up the ladies after tying them to a pillar with ropes, went viral on social media.

Ranchi (Jharkhand): Two women were allegedly beaten up on Thursday, March 28, after they were suspected of conducting theft here in Sukurhuttu.

Kanke Police officials traced the victim late on Thursday night after a video of the assault went viral on social media. As per police, no FIR has been registered in this case.

The Mansoori Panchayat had earlier found these two women guilty and had sentenced them to being beaten by sticks. The women along with their family members were dragged to the Sukurhuttu Minar Mosque, where they were tied to a pillar with ropes and beaten brutally.

Their husbands, too, were severely attacked and then thrown out of the village by the residents. Police said that the Mansoori Panchayat had given the verdict, as per the Islamic Shariat.

The women were accused of stealing products from a local textile shop located on the main road of Sukurhuttu. After the villagers were alerted, a Panchayat meeting was arranged in Sukurhuttu to decide the quantum of punishment.

Chaired by Panchayat Sadar Shafiq Mansoori, the women were made to confess about the theft and then dragged to the modque. They were beaten about fifty times on the waist and legs. Not a single person standing in front of the mosque came forward to save the women during the attack.

While they were being beaten, the women kept pleading with the crowd to save them with folded hands but in vain. The Panchayat alleged that this was not the first time that the duo were accused of stealing and thus were beaten.

They had also conducting thefts on the Main Road, Pithoria road etc, the panchayat alleged. They were also jailed on a couple of occasions, but refused to stop stealing, the panchayat claimed.

"Further action will be taken based on the statements of the victim," Ramkumar Verma, Kanke police station in-charge said.