Three days after a video of girls being sexually harassed by a group of boys at a Bhagoria fair in Alirajpur went viral, another incident of harassment and physical assault on girls at Bhagoria in neighbouring Jhabua district has come to light through a video clip.
The police of the both the districts, taking cognizance of the viral videos, have arrested 22 youths, including some minors, after making identifications. Seven youth, including two minors, were arrested in Jhabua while 15 were arrested in Alirajpur.
Bhagoria is a traditional tribal fair celebrated in the run up to Holi festival, mainly in Alirajpur and Jhabua. The fairs are put up at different villages and youngsters visit the fairs in large numbers, often dressed in traditional attire. However, the incidents of molestation and abuse of girls have cast a shadow on the fairs that were organised after a two-year gap induced by the pandemic.
The first video of two girls being molested by a group of youth in Alirajpur Bhagoria came to light on Sunday. The boys were seen openly groping the girls and allegedly kissed one of them, but nobody intervened to stop the harassment.
The video went viral and the MP Congress shared it on social media, questioning the government on the issue of safety of women.
Alirajpur Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Singh told the media that three of the accused were detained on Sunday evening and the others on Monday.
On Wednesday another video from neighbouring Jhabua district, showing some girls being harassed and assaulted by some youths came to light from Bhagoria fair in Meghnagar. One of the girls is seen crying in the video, after being hit by the youths.
मेघनगर भगोरिया में छेड़छाड़ मारपीट:आरोपी संजय बारिया को जल्द गिरफ्तार करे प्रशासन @collectorjhabua @spjhabuamp @CMMadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/jlfS2jfvri
— Office Of Dr Anand Rai (@anandrai177) March 15, 2022
Superintendent of Police of Jhabua, Ashutosh Gupta, said the video was circulated locally on March 14, and taking suo motu cognizance, the police identified the girls who were residents of Antarbelia village, took them in confidence and found that the incident had occurred on March 12 after a youth placed his hand on the shoulder of one of the girls. When she and her friends questioned it, the youth beat them up. On the basis of the information received from the girls, Meghnagar police identified the accused, and arrested them on Tuesday.
