Luckonw: Mentally-challenged woman tied to tree, beaten up; 9 held

Police have booked 19 people, including 10 unidentified ones, for the incident.

Nine people were arrested for allegedly tying a 40-year-old mentally-challenged woman to a tree and beating her up on the suspicion of child lifting at Rehli village in Gonda district on Saturday.

Police have booked 19 people, including 10 unidentified ones, for the incident.

At least six videos of the assault have been circulated widely. One video shows several women slapping the victim, identified as Noor Jahan from the neighbouring Shahpur village, and pulling her hair. In another video, people are seen asking Jahan what she “has done with the kidnapped children”.

The Station House Officer (SHO) of Nawabganj Police Station, Bhanu Pratap Singh, said Jahan was beaten up with flip-flops and shoes. She suffered non-serious injuries and underwent a medical examination, he said.

Gonda Superintendent of Police (SP) Raj Karan Nayyar told The Indian Express that the child lifting claim against Jahan was false. “She was supposed to travel with her father to a place by train, but somehow strayed into Rehli village where she was caught by locals for moving around aimlessly in the evening,” the SP said.

She could not coherently identify herself, fuelling rumours that she was a child lifter. “Villagers gathered and tied Jahan to a tree and beat her up. After being alerted by some locals, a police team rescued her. We have registered an FIR after her father’s complaint and booked 19 people, including 10 unidentified ones,” said the SSP.

Her father told police that she was mentally unstable, said SHO Singh.

The FIR was lodged against the 19 people under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

A local court Sunday sent the arrested accused to 14 days of judicial custody.

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