Estranged husband held, his brother absconding; Women’s Commission seeks report

Nanjangud: In an inhumane incident, a married woman and her male friend were tied to a pole and subjected to public humiliation and were assaulted by her husband and his brother at Nanjangud last evening. They were accused of having an illicit relationship.

What is shocking is that the villagers were mute spectators to the brutal act. They were finally rescued by the Kavalande Police who have arrested the woman’s husband while his brother is on the run.

The incident was reported from Goodi near Hemmaragala village in Nanjangud taluk.

The video of the assault went viral with villagers standing around the poles to which the woman and her friend were tied up. The Nanjangud Police said that the victim (identity concealed to protect the woman’s honour) had blamed her estranged husband Ravi and her brother-in-law Chandru for the incident.

The woman was living separately from her husband for the last five years and the couple had three children. While Ravi was taking care of two children, the woman was bringing up one little child. She used to work in coffee estates in Kodagu for a living.

The woman had returned to her home in the village a week back and her male friend, a resident of Nerale village in Nanjangud, to whom she was introduced to in the coffee plantation, came to her house last night. Observing this, Ravi suspected his estranged wife and locked the doors of the woman’s house.

He later called his brother Chandru to the spot and both dragged the woman and her friend out of the house and tied both of them to the pole.

The woman was wailing and pleading with the public to untie and save her. In full public view, the woman and her friend were assaulted. Some even filmed the act and released it on social media.

In her complaint, the woman has stated that after some hours of the assault, some of the village elders intervened and informed the villagers of the woman’s friend at Nerale. Later they were released and even the Police arrived at the scene.

The woman told the Police that she met the man in one of the coffee estates in Kodagu and as he hailed from nearby Nerale, she had invited him for a cup of coffee. The woman denied that she was having a relationship with the youth and she was victimised by her suspicious estranged husband.

Her husband Ravi has been arrested now and the search is on for his brother Chandru. The State Women’s Commission has sought a report from the Mysuru Superintendent of Police (SP).