Yet another case of self-appointed moral police turning anything but moral came to light recently from Indore's Madhya Pradesh. A brother and sister, who were meeting after a long time, were dragged out of a house by a mob who mistook them for lovers. After being dragged out, they were tied to a tree and beaten mercilessly.
The incident happened in Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa district, in Bamanda village of Piplod area, where the siblings were mercilessly thrashed by a mob of village vigilantes, who suspected the duo of having an affair. The place is around 170 kms from Indore and close to the Maharashtra border.
Let alone give a patient hearing to the two victims, the mob did not even pay heed to the woman's husband who kept telling them over phone about the status of the two being siblings. Some social media reports also state that the mob mistook the two for an inter-caste couple.
Only after the mob continued beating the two for an hour that someone alerted police by dialling 100. The two after being rescued were taken to a nearby hospital and their statements recorded. District Khandwa SP Satyendra Shukla said that Gyanlal had gone to visit his sister Kalawati in Bamanda on Friday evening. At the time, he came, she was alone at home. They were sitting inside the house, when a mob barged in, accusing the two and creating a scene.
Kalwati's husband Ramesh, as it turned out, is also a distant cousin of Gyanlal. Someone had informed Ramesh over phone that his wife and her brother were being beaten up publicly. After the accused fled, the police chased them and later arrested them on charges of assault, trespassing and abusive language.
