Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh police on Monday arrested 15 men including the prime accused, in connection with the incident of molestation of two women at Bhagoria Festival in Alirajpur of Madhya Pradesh, informed the Jhabua Superintendent of Police Manoj Singh. “Our first objective is to protect women and children. We have taken the issue very seriously. The police inspected the video. We took cognizance of the incident and filed an FIR. We have arrested all the 15 accused,” Singh said.
Earlier on Sunday, a video purportedly showing a group of men molesting a girl and a woman at the Bhagoria Festival in Alirajpur of Madhya Pradesh went viral. The preliminary investigation into the incident revealed that the accused are from Dhar and Barwani and the video was shot by a college teacher from Barwani, who was arrested later. An FIR had been registered by the police and a search for the rest of the accused is underway. Police have booked the miscreants under IPC section 354 (assaulting woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
Bhagoria festival is celebrated by tribal people in western Madhya Pradesh ahead of Holi. In another incident reported from Guna district of Madhya Pradesh, a differently-abled man allegedly killed his daughter and then raped her corpse after she reportedly rejected his advances, police said. The incident took place in Jaita Dongar village under Bajranggarh police station in Guna district last month. Later, police arrested the 40-year-old accused.