4 arrested for flogging man, his partner for eloping

However, Baria — who has three children with his wife — stated, “I fell in love with Bhavna, a girl from my village but since our parents refused to let us marry, we went away together on May 20. We had been living together and earning a livelihood when my wife’s relatives (the accused) called me and asked me to return to the village to record a police statement in a complaint they had filed against me… Believing it to be true, Bhavna and I came to the village on the night of July 16.”

Baria has stated that the four accused — Nilesh Juvansinh Khant, Dinesh Ratan Khant, Vijaykumar Khant and Mahesh Juvansinh Khant — abused and began assaulting Bhavna for having “eloped with a married man”. Thereafter, according to the complaint, the accused also assaulted Baria and dragged the couple to the electricity pole at the centre of the village and flogged them with sticks. “It was when the village heads arrived at the spot and intervened that Bhavna and I were rescued,” Baria’s complaint stated.

The police have arrested the four accused and booked them under various sections of the IPC as well as for contravention of rules under Section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act.

This is the second similar incident that occurred under the same police station on the same day (July 17). In another FIR lodged on July 19, 27-year-old Ramesh Rathod was tied to a tree and assaulted by 18 persons in Vadodar village of the taluka after his brother allegedly eloped with a girl belonging to the community of the accused in Panchmahal. The Morva Hadaf police arrested the 18 persons, including the parents of the woman who the victim’s brother has allegedly eloped with, late Thursday.