Rajasthan: 14 get 7-year jail term for stripping, parading woman naked in 2023

Jaipur: A district court in Pratapgarh on Saturday sentenced 14 men to seven years imprisonment and three women to five years imprisonment for stripping a 20-year-old pregnant woman and parading her naked last year, allegedly because she was in a relationship with another man.

The incident took place on August 31 last year in Nichlakota village of Pratapgarh district of Rajasthan, when the woman’s husband and relatives found her at the house of a man she was in a relationship with.

The incident, a video of which went viral, triggered a massive uproar across the country. The woman was seven months pregnant then. Hearing the matter on Saturday, Justice Ramkanya Soni called it a terrible crime.

“The case was one of the terrible crimes committed against the women. Considering a surge in such crimes against women in our society with each passing day, the court convicted all the accused with the strictest punishment,” she said.

Based on an FIR filed by the woman in September last year, at least 17 people, including her husband, relatives, and neighbours, were arrested under sections 509, 354 A, and 354 B, 323, 342, 294, 36, 341, 504, 506, and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 4/6 of the Indecent Representation of Women Prohibit Act, and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (punishment for publishing obscene material in electronic form).

A five-member team was also formed to probe the matter. Talking about the case, then-Pratapgarh police superintendent Amit Budaniya said, “The accused had an influential local network in their village. Considering the influence of the aides of the woman’s in-laws, the police also appealed the Dhariyawad court to shift the case to Pratapgarh, which was approved in January. An investigating officer was also asked to visit the court during every hearing to ensure no outside influence on the case.”