Villagers beat up Dalit woman

The elaborately shot video footage — flashed across TV news channels — showed a middle aged woman, Lalpari Devi, being tied to a tree while an elderly man pulling her by her hair and thrashing her like a beast. Thereafter, the woman’s hair was sheared, her face smeared with limestone and then she was paraded while tied to a rope and people kept beating her with a broom. Surprisingly, women too joined the crowd in beating her.

The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon and the video footage were aired on Friday morning. The place was Dumaria village, some five kilometres away from Maner police station in Patna district. The police, however, reached the spot half-an-hour late and rescued the woman from the crowd and arrested one person — Ram Ayodhya Rai — accused of cutting the woman’s hair.

Police said that two TV news stringers — from Aaj Tak and a local channel PTN — informed them about the incident but only after they had shot everything elaborately for about half-an-hour. “Police rushed to the spot immediately and rescued the woman. It’s sad that the stringers did not inform the police on time”, said Danapur ASP, Nishant Tiwary.

Lalpari Devi was known in the village for possessing occult powers and practicing witchcraft. She was hired around a week back by Ram Ayodhya Rai (arrested) to cure his ailing wife. However, when the condition of his wife worsened, he felt the “witch” had used her powers to kill her. On Thursday, when Lalpari Devi was spotted in the village, Rai and other villagers caught her and started beating her.

The incident was raised in the Assembly on Friday by Opposition members. Replying to it, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said his Government had taken the matter seriously and assured the House that the culprits will not be spared. Kumar said that it was unfortunate that such malaise existed in the society and urged everyone to make the masses aware.

Police said that so far they are going straight in the case, but would also probe the role of the TV stringers. “It is amazing that the villagers beat up the woman in front of camera for half an hour,” said a police officer.