Police in Madhya Pradesh's Chhattarpur town have confirmed registering a complaint against a husband who chained his wife over alleged infidelity.
Despite stringent laws, most crimes against women in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists who say successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women and children.
Suspecting his wife, the man in Chhatarpur chained his wife and did not allow her to interact with anyone. Somehow, the victim managed to escape to her parents place, and they went to the police station to file a complaint against her husband.
The police registered the case under Sections 70/14, 342, 498 and 323 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the husband.
"A woman who was chained by her husband came with her parents. The husband used to look at her with suspicion when she used to talk with others including her parents. We have registered a complaint against him in Sections 70/14, 342, 498 and 323. As soon as the husband received the information, he ran away," said a police officer, Omkar Tiwari.
Statistics showed that 244,270 crimes against women were reported to the police in 2012, against 228,650 in 2011, according to the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB).
These include rapes, kidnappings, sexual harassment, trafficking, molestation and cruelty by husbands and relatives. They also include crimes in which a woman was driven to suicide as a result of demands for dowry from the husband or in-laws.
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Police helped the victim unchain herself who was kept enslaved for three days by her husband.
"My husband chained me for the last three days and did not allow to me speak to anyone," said the victim.
India toughened laws on sex crimes in March last year after the brutal assault in Delhi in December 2012.
India has a clutch of powerful women politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, the chief of the ruling Congress Party, and arguably the country's most powerful lawmaker.
But the realities for many Indian women stand in grim contrast as the discrimination against girls and female foeticide are common.