NINE people,including two women, havebeen arrested in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district after amarried woman was allegedly assaulted,illegally confined and gang-raped during a purported “purification”ritual over herrelationship with another man, with videos of the incident later circulated on social media, police said. The case came to light after videos showing the woman being subjected to violence and humiliation surfaced online. Policesaid the woman hadnot initially approached them,but officers acted after receiving information from community members and began searching for her.Surendranagar SP Premsukh Delu said several police teams were deployed to trace thewoman after the videos came to their attention.

 

The woman was eventually locatedandbrought to thepolice station,where her statement was recorded, and she was provided protection. According to the police complaint, the woman had left her husband and gone to livewith another man. Herhusband and relatives allegedly traced her and brought her to ahouse,where she was confined using locks and chains. She subsequently escaped,but the accused allegedlycaughther againand tied her to atreewith ropes. The accused allegedly subjected the woman and the man shehadbeenlivingwith tophysical assault and humiliation in the name of carrying out a“shuddhikaran” or purification ritual. Police said the woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by multiple people,with the ordeal being recorded on amobile phone.The videos were subsequently circulated on social media. Police arealso investigating the circumstances in which the recordings were made andcirculated. A-Division police Inspector R M Sangada said therole of those whorecorded and disseminated the videos was also being examined.