The moment of mob violence and humiliation has become particularly disturbing in the Raisen district, which witnessed a 70-year-old man allegedly kidnapped and brutally assaulted while they forced him to drink urine from a group of men over his son’s relationship with a woman.
The victim, Bihari Banjara, was originally from Agariya Markho village. It also took place after the son eloped with a woman from Shamshabad in the neighbouring Vidisha district, authorities and family members said. What followed was a harrowing chain of events.
Some 10–12 men allegedly broke into Banjara’s house in search of the woman. When they were unsuccessful, they allegedly assaulted both Banjara and his wife. The attackers later physically yanked the elderly man from his home. The complaint stated Banjara was driven nearly 150 kilometres to Biaora in the Rajgarh district.
There, the accused reportedly beat him to the ground and forced him to drink urine from a bottle in a move that has taken the nation by surprise for its sheer brutality. “They beat me badly and made me drink urine,” Banjara reportedly told officials, naming at least a few of the accused.
The attackers, he said, tried to force him to help find his son and the woman, then assaulted him when he wouldn’t comply. The accused also purportedly filmed the whole incident and shared it on social media to humiliate the victim, on top of the brutality.
The assault left Banjara reportedly abandoned near his house by the attackers, who fled the scene after leaving him near his house. And family members have raised grave doubts about police inaction at first. Banjara’s daughter-in-law, Geetabai, said that no action was taken immediately after reaching the local police station.
She also said the attackers had threatened the family with additional violence if they did not comply. The family was also away in Rajasthan when the elopement happened, said his son, Badri Prasad. The accused had occupied their home overnight, he said, before abducting his father in the early hours of the morning.
He also alleged that his mother was assaulted in the incident. To obtain justice, Banjara later travel to Bhopal and lodges a formal complaint regarding it with senior police officials, including the Director General of Police, providing the viral video as proof. It helped build a good reputation and a coalition action between multiple districts.
Pratibha Sharma, who is a Sub-Divisional Police Officer at Raisen, said a case has been registered and that investigations are underway to arrest the accused. Raisen and Rajgarh police forces are collaborating to find suspects, she said.
But the incident has ignited outrage and has reignited concerns about mob justice, law enforcement response and the safety of at-risk individuals in remote rural communities. And when investigating the incident, the clamour for justice is increasing: It needs to be met with the toughest punishment against the culprits and enforcement of stringent measures so as not to repeat such a horrific act once more.
