MP: Woman thrashed, forced to walk with boy on shoulders by in-laws

A tribal woman was beaten upand forced to walk for three km carrying a teenage boy on hershoulders by her in-laws in Madhya Pradesh's Guna district,police said on Tuesday.

The woman had left her husband and was living withanother man which apparently led to the assault, police said.

Five persons have been arrested in connection with theincident that took place at Sanai village, said Gunasuperintendent of police (SP) Rajesh Kumar Mishra.

The incident took place on February 9 and came tolight on Monday when a purported video of it went viral.

A case has been registered against a total of eightpersons inlcluding a minor, the police official said. Earlierthe police had said the woman's husband was among the accused,but the SP later said he was not among them.

In the video, the woman, who is around 20 years old,is seen walking barefoot with the boy on her shoulders as somemen keep hitting her with sticks and even with cricket bats.

The woman, who married a man from Banskhedi villagetwo years ago, had separated from him due to some dispute andand was living with another man in Sanai, the SP said.

On February 9, when she was alone, some members of her estranged husband's family and the boy turned up and andallegedly beat her up, he said.

They also forced the woman to walk for three km withthe boy on her shoulders, the SP said.

Based on a complaint lodged by the woman at Sirsipolice station, the police arrested five of the eight accused,he said.

Additional superintendent of police T S Baghel saidthat as per preliminary probe, members of her husband's familywere angry because she was living with another man.

State Congress chief Kamal Nath claimed the woman waspregnant, and said what happened was against humanity.

''Shivraj-ji (chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan), isthis your good governance?'' he asked.

''A pregnant woman was forced to walk barefoot with aboy on her shoulders. A procession was taken out and she wasbeaten up mercilessly,'' the former chief minister said,demanding stern action against the culprits.

But additional SP Baghel said according to availableinformation, the victim was not pregnant.