A 24-year-old woman from Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district is alleged to have been forced to undergo a ‘purification’ ritual by her father and other relatives in exchange for marrying a Dalit man. According to Kotwali Betul police, the woman had her hair trimmed, her dress discarded, and she was forced to bathe in the Narmada river. On March 11, 2020, Sakshi Yadav, a resident of Chopna, Betul, married 27-year-old Amit Ahirwar in the Arya Samaj temple. Even though her father knew about her whereabouts and used to meet her, her family members filed a missing person complaint in January 2021.
‘I got married on March 11, 2020, and informed my father on January 4, 2021. My father continued to meet me but despite that, he filed a missing person complaint on January 10, 2021, at Chopna police station (in the Betul district),’ the woman said, according to a PTI report. Following the missing person report, the police reunited the woman with her family, who took her signature on a paper.
In February, she moved to a hostel in Rajgarh district to complete her nursing studies. Her father picked her up there on August 18 under the pretext of ‘Raksha Bandhan’. Then, she was brought to Hoshangabad, where she underwent a purification ritual because she had married a ‘lower-caste’. In front of other people, Sakshi was forced to take a dip in the river half-naked.
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Sakshi ran away from the hostel and returned to her husband on Thursday. As they fear death, they have sought police protection. According to the officer in charge of the women’s desk, Pallavi Gaur, her family is against the marriage due to caste differences. Sakshi has been receiving death threats since marriage from her mother. According to her, she was further pressured into divorcing her husband and remarrying someone of her caste.
Immediately after the marriage, the husband had filed a written complaint against the family members with the SP, station in-charge of Kotwali Betul, but no action has been taken. Under sections 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of the peace) and other sections, a case has been filed against the woman’s father and three relatives. For further action, the case diary has been sent to the Chopna Police Station in the Betul district.
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