Kin protests over abduction of woman, forceful ‘marriage’

Jaisalmer: Days before her marriage was scheduled in Jaisalmer’s Sankhla village, a woman was abducted by the man to whom she was earlier engaged, and taken to a deserted area where a video was shot of the man forcibly carrying the weeping woman in his lap and walking around a bush fire, in a poor attempt to solemnise their “marriage”.The video was made viral on social media, the abductor was subsequently caught and the woman rescued, but family members and other residents of Sankhla village on Tuesday demonstrated outside the district collector’s office to demand the arrest of “15-20 others” involved in the abduction, as they were continuing to circulate the video and were threatening the woman’s family.Chun Singh, the girl’s father, alleged that one of the accused is currently the bodyguard of the state cabinet minister Shale Mohammad and because of his political pressure, the police were not catching the remaining accused.“We have lost our respect in the society. If we do not get justice, my wife and I will commit suicide,” said Singh.A memorandum was submitted to the additional district collector saying that if all the abductors were not arrested within two days, the villagers would launch an agitation. The father of the woman said that Pushpendra Singh along with 15-20 people on the morning of June 1 abducted his daughter from right outside their house. He said that his daughter’s marriage was scheduled on June 12 and if the abductors were roaming free, they may yet again harm his daughter or disrupt the marriage.Superintendent of police Vikas Sangwan said that the accused Pushpendra Singh had been arrested and sent to jail while the woman had been handed over to her family members. The other absconding accused would be arrested soon, he said.Swati Maliwal, chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, said a woman being abducted and subjected to a forcible ritual in a barren desert was “shocking and frightening”. She said chief minister Ashok Gehlot should take immediate action on it.Union minister of state for law Arjun Meghwal and many others tweeted and demanded strict action against the accused in this case.