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Assam Moral Policing: Villagers Tortured Couple All Night, Shaved Woman's Head For Having 'Illicit Affair'

The couple were seriously injured and admitted to a hospital.
File photo.
Arko Datta / Reuters
File photo.

In a horrifying incident of moral policing in Assam, the police have said that a couple was beaten up and the woman's head was shaved in Nagaon district for having an alleged "illicit" affair.

PTI reported that the incident took place on Saturday night. The couple were seriously injured and were taken to a hospital in Kathiatoli and later admitted to the Bhogeswari Phukanani Civil Hospital in Nagaon.

This is one of several such incidents in Assam this month.

The PTI report quoted the police as saying, "The woman's head was shaved by other women of the village. Their clothes were torn and they were tortured through the night. The villagers informed the police only during early hours in the morning."

The villagers said that they did this to the couple because they were both married and were cheating on their spouses, according to the report.

This comes close on the heels of another similar incident.

NDTV had reported last week that a couple, driving through Assam's Goalpara, were dragged off their bike, beaten up and forced to marry.

A video of the incident that had gone viral had purportedly showed the couple, surrounded by villagers, being harassed by a man with a staff.

The report said that the villagers had a meeting after which they forced the couple to marry.

Earlier this month, two men were lynched to death in Assam's Karbi Anglong district. The two were traveling in their car when villagers attacked them on the suspicion of being kidnappers.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.