Villagers shaved half the moustache of a man, half-tonsured him and blackened his face as "punishment" for allegedly stealing a cow in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district, police said on Friday.
The bizarre punishment was meted out by the residents of Marutal village in the district on Thursday, an official said.
"The man had allegedly admitted to stealing a cow, following which a group of villagers decided to half-shave his moustache and half-tonsure his head," he said.
The villagers also blackened his face and forced him to walk around the village, the official said.
The cattle owner said the cow had gone missing two days ago, and based on a suspicion, villagers had caught one Sitaram, who admitted that he had stolen the animal along with another man.
A video of the incident went viral on social media, after which, R B Pande, in-charge of the Jabalpur Naka police post, reached the village and brought the accused to the post.
A report has been filed in connection with the incident, and further action will be taken based on a probe, the official said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Madhya Pradesh's CBI Move: Agency Needs Written Consent To Probe Cases Watch: Land "Taken By Mafia", Farmer Rolls On Floor With Folded Hands Congress' Alka Lamba Accused Of Threatening To Hit Party Worker With Shoe Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Microsoft 'Blue Screen Of Death' Outage: Full List Of Services Hit In India Study Abroad: Top 10 Management Universities In United Kingdom "Reason Identified, Updates Released": India On Massive Microsoft Outage UPSC Cracks Down, Says Puja Khedkar Faked Identity, Parents' Name, Address Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.