Woman stripped half naked and thrashed in public seeks justice

Published On: June 13, 2018 08:20 AM NPT By: Devendra Basnet

Says police imposed arbitration

DANG, June 13: Four days ago, Dilmaya Pun of Sitganga Municipality-9 of Dang district was mercilessly thrashed by two other women. They also stripped her half naked in public. They slapped her, pulled her hair and kicked her in the face.

It all started after Dilmaya refused to sell her land. The refusal was not taken kindly. They called her names and used hate speech even as they beat her black and blue. Members of the public watched on, doing little to intervene.

Dilmaya tried to break loose. However, the two women dragged her to the bus park of Bhalung Bazaar and tore up her clothes, leaving her half naked.

“I want justice for the assault and humiliation,” she said, her body still aching.

Two years ago, she had bought three dhur of land from her brother-in-law Kalu Ram Kumal for Rs 30,000. Kalu Ram also had some adjoining land.

A few days ago, he called her and said that the locals had forced him to sell his land cheap, and warned her that might happen to her as well. Dilmaya and her husband Man Bahadur Pun then came to the village as per her brother-in-law’s advice.

Some locals had already erected a fence around her land and planted vegetables there. She immediately objected. “But they told me to sell them the land and set a price at Rs 50,000,” said Dilmaya.

Rekha Gupta and Anita Gupta, two locals, insisted that she sell, and she refused. The two women would not take no for an answer, and started picking a quarrel.

“If I don’t want to sell my property, how can they force me?” asked Dilmaya. According to her, there were six individuals who started thrashing her. “They threw sticks and stones towards me. I tried to make my escape but the two women followed. They cornered me at Bhaluwang bus park.” They tore the kurta off the upper part of her body. They were also able to tear her suruwal, but she managed to cling on to it. They then started kicking her mercilessly. A large crowd gathered, but they only looked on and did nothing.

“Some woman gave me a kurta-suruwal and I put it on,” she said.

Meanwhile, her husband, who has high blood pressure, was buying medicine at a pharmacy and came to know about the incident only later. By the time police reached the scene, the incident was already over. The police called both parties to the Area Police Office (APO) and initiated discussions. They said it was just an ordinary incident but told them not to repeat it. Case closed.

APO chief Inspector Rabindra Raj Pandey said the parties refused to speak much and the victim herself said it was just an ordinary quarrel.

However, Dilmaya begs to differ. “The police forced me to agree to the arbitration,” she said.

Video footage of the thrashing was filmed by a child. Retu Rana, a local, uploaded the video on Facebook. It then spread like wildfire.

“I watched the video many times and felt really bad about the woman’s mistreatment. So I put it on social media, hoping that the victim would get justice,” said Rana.

The mistreatment of the woman came under widespread condemnation. It piled pressure on the police to arrest Rekha and Anita Gupta.

They have been arrested and charged with public offence. Inspector Pandey said investigations are ongoing and they have extended the custody for seven days .