In a shocking incident, a woman was stripped naked, her face blackened and she was forced to ride a donkey on the order of a panchayat in Thurval village in Rajsamand district, 350 km from here.
"The incident occurred at around 9 p.m. Saturday. We have arrested 39 persons under various sections of the IPC in this regard and have provided security to the family of the 45-year-old woman," Sudhir Joshi, additional SP, Rajsamand told IANS over phone.
"We have also shifted the woman to a nearby shelter home where she is undergoing counselling as she is in a state of shock," said the official.
The village falls in an area which is dominated by tribals.
The panchayat gave this punishment to the woman on allegation that she killed her nephew. The nephew had died under mysterious circumstances and his wife, suspecting that his aunt had killed him, approached the panchayat which pronounced her guilty and ordered that she be stripped naked in the middle of the village, her face blackened and that she be paraded on donkey-back for over an hour.
"We came to know about this incident after a FIR was filed by her husband Sunday," Joshi said.
A police officer from nearby Charbhuja police station said that out of the 39 people arrested, nine are from the victim's family.
