Rajasthan Man Paraded Naked For Allegedly Sexually Harassing Woman: Cops

A 28-year-old man was thrashed, garlanded with shoes and paraded naked in a village in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district for allegedly sexually harassing a woman, police said on Monday.

On a complaint from Rakesh Rathore, eight people were arrested in the case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections pertaining to voluntarily causing hurt, defamation and wrongful confinement, they said.

Rathore was also arrested. He was booked for house trespass, and unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures, on a complaint from the woman, police official Rajiv Parihar said.

"The woman's husband had caught Rathore and his wife together in his house on Saturday evening, but he was given a strict warning and allowed to leave," he said.

However, a day later, friends of the woman's husband called Rathore and then, he was beaten up, garlanded with shoes and paraded naked in Bagher village, said Mr Parihar, who is also the investigating officer of the case.

Rathore was a supervisor of a MGNREGA project, while the woman was a worker under the national employment scheme, police said.

Following the incident, eight of the nine accused were arrested on Sunday. The woman's husband is on a run, Mr Parihar said.

Both parties filed complaints and cases were registered at the Sarola police station, he said.

The accused also made a video of the incident and uploaded it on social media, Mr Parihar said.

The nine people have been booked under IPC sections 294 (obscene acts), 143 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 500 (defamation), he said, adding that they have been also charged under the Information Technology Act.

On a complaint from the woman, Rathore was arrested under IPC sections 456 (house trespass) and 354 (unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures), the officer said.

He has been also booked under section 3 of the SC/ST Act as she belongs to the schedule tribe community, he said.

In the initial probe, it has been found that Rathore had recently gifted the woman a mobile-phone, and it is suspected that they could have been in a relationship, Mr Parihar said.