Year after son elopes with girl, 10 assault, molest Abohar woman

Fazilka: Police booked 10 persons, including four women, for allegedly assaulting and molesting a 42-year-old woman, whose son eloped with a girl over a year ago and married her, at a village in Abohar sub-division of Fazilka district.

The incident took place on August 18, when the complainant was returning from a grocery store in the village.

In her police complaint, the woman alleged that she was stopped by Kala Singh, Raj Singh, Mangal Singh, Jangir Singh, Sonu, Sandeep Singh, Gurdev Kaur, Anita Rani, Sumitra and Paramjeet Kaur. She alleged that she was stripped naked and paraded around the village by them to avenge the incident.

Police have registered a case under sections 354 (assault or criminal force on a woman to outrage her modesty), 354-A (physical contact involving explicit sexual overtures), 354-B (a man using force against a woman to disrobe her or forces her to do so), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code.

No arrests have so far been made as all the accused are on the run. Fazilka senior superintendent of police (SSP) Bhupinder Singh said the accused had a quarrel with the woman and her clothes were torn in the melee, and the claim of being paraded naked was being probed.