Rajkot: In a horrifying case of vigilante brutality, a man was allegedly forced to perform sexual acts with a married woman with whom he was in a relationship and made to drink her urine as “punishment” in public glare as a so-called “purification ritual” in Surendranagar.The woman and her partner were allegedly subjected to the ordeal by her husband and his relatives on Oct 4. The accused also recorded the acts on mobile phones and circulated the videos on social media.Police traced the woman after coming across the viral videos and arrested nine people, including her husband and his relatives.According to the complaint, the woman was married to a man in Vapi. She had left her husband and moved to Chotila, where she lived with her partner for around three months. Her family later traced her, brought her back to Vapi and allegedly confined her in a house. She eventually escaped and returned to Chotila five days ago.When her husband learnt that she was back with her partner, he allegedly alerted his relatives, who traced the couple, brought them to a house in Surendranagar and subjected them to the alleged “purification ritual”.Talking to TOI, Surendranagar DSP Premsukh Delu said police learnt about the incident after a community leader alerted them and videos of the assault surfaced on social media.“I received a call from a community leader regarding a woman who had been brutalised. We also came across several videos. Several police teams were deployed to trace the woman,” Delu said.Police teams searched houses in the area and found the woman at one of them. “She started crying on seeing the police. We matched her face with the woman in the video and brought her to the police station. She narrated her ordeal after counselling,” Delu said.According to the complaint, the accused brought the couple to Surendranagar, claiming they were going to perform a “purification ritual”. They allegedly beat them with wooden sticks and thrashed them. The man was then tied to a tree with a rope, while the woman was confined to a room.The accused allegedly later forced the man to perform sexual acts with the woman in a verandah and subjected both to further humiliation. The man was also allegedly forced to drink the woman’s urine. The entire ordeal was recorded on a mobile phone and the videos circulated on social media, police said.RM Sangada, inspector, A-Division police station, said police are also investigating who recorded the videos and circulated them on social media.The accused have been booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 70(1) (sexual intercourse by deceitful means), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 127(3) (wrongful confinement), 142 (wrongfully concealing or keeping a kidnapped/abducted person) and 3(5) (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), as well as provisions of the IT Act.
