Gujarat woman escapes forced bigamy, alleges 'purification' ritual

A woman in Gujarat's Surendranagar district has been rescued after being subjected to a brutal public ordeal described as a 'purification ritual.' The incident came to light after a video of the abuse circulated on social media, prompting police intervention on October 6. Additional Superintendent of Police Vedika Bihani and her team located the woman less than an hour after receiving a call from a community leader about the video.

According to police, the woman and her alleged lover were forced to engage in sexual acts on October 5 while being tied with rope by nine accused persons, including two women and a man claiming to be her husband. The purported acts included humiliating sexual abuse, with police stating the acts involved making the man lick the woman's private parts, forcing the woman to urinate in a vessel, and compelling the man to drink the urine. When officers arrived at the residence, they found the woman with visible injuries—her right side of her face and right hand were swollen, and her eye was bruised. She immediately broke down and pleaded with police to take her away.

All nine accused have been arrested and booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 relating to gangrape, voluntarily causing hurt, and wrongful confinement, as well as sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000 for the video's creation and circulation.