Congress attacks MP govt as videos of women, an elderly couple being thrashed go viral

Videos of three separate incidents of women and an elderly couple being thrashed in different districts of Madhya Pradesh have gone viral on social media during the past four days. The alleged incidents, close on the heels of the murder of five members of a tribal family in the Dewas district has led the opposition Congress to attack the Shivraj Singh Chouhan led BJP government and calling it ‘Jungle Raj’.

While police have termed video of one of the alleged incidents in Shajapur district – where an elderly man was seen tied to a tree and his wife and daughter-in-law tied and left on the ground after allegedly being thrashed – as fake, cases have been registered against perpetrators in two other incidents where young women were beaten up by respective family members.

The latest video, which went viral late on Saturday night, shows two girls being beaten up by their paternal cousins in the Pipalwa village of Dhar district. The girls were suspected to be talking to their maternal cousin brothers despite their marriages being fixed elsewhere. The video mainly shows one of the girls being beaten up and paraded in the village even as onlookers make videos and some are heard laughing.

The incident reportedly occurred on June 22 but came to light only after the video went viral.

Tagging the video, Congress on Sunday tweeted “MP was shamed again as a video of cruelty has now come from Dhar. When will you feel ashamed, Shivraj ji? In your rule, daughters are being attacked daily.” Further terming home minister Narottam Mishra as ‘bite-vir’ (a dig on the daily statements of Mishra to electronic media), the Congress said the home minister was merely passing time. The opposition party also termed the government as ‘Jungle Raj’.

Meanwhile, the Dhar police registered a case on Sunday based on the viral tweet and arrested seven members of the girls’ family, a state home department tweet said. The statement was retweeted by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too.

On July 2, another video of a young woman being hung from a tree and beaten up by her father and paternal cousin brothers in Badi Futtalab village of Alirajpur district had gone viral on social media and attracted a lot of anger. The woman was allegedly beaten up on June 28 for leaving her marital home to go to her maternal uncle’s place without informing anyone. Her father and cousins suspected that she had eloped.

Leader of opposition Kamal Nath had attacked CM Chouhan over the incident saying that there was not a single day when women in Madhya Pradesh did not face cruel and barbaric actions. “There is a video of a young woman being hung to a tree and beaten up. Do you want to set a world record of atrocities on women?” Nath tweeted.

The police registered a case in this incident too after the video went viral and arrested four perpetrators named by the woman, the home department tweeted.

However, police termed a video showing an elderly couple and their daughter in law being tied and beaten up in village Bijana of Shajapur district as fake. The police said that upon investigation on the spot no evidence of any such incident to have occurred could be found. Kamal Nath had also attacked the state government on this alleged incident.