ASP Bihani and her team had rescued the battered woman who had undergone a brutal, humiliating, public ordeal the previous day (AI generated image)When the police team entered the house in Surendranagar in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, they saw a woman cooking at the stove. She seemed to be just another rural housewife, making lunch.But the officers knew she was not any woman – she was a woman whom they had seen in a horrific video that had been circulating in the area.As the woman turned toward them, the officers saw that the right side of her face and her right hand were swollen, and her eye was bruised.“As soon as she saw us, she broke down in tears, and started to plead with us to take her away from there,” Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Vedika Bihani told The Indian Express on Wednesday (October 7).On Tuesday, ASP Bihani and her team had rescued the battered woman who had undergone a brutal, humiliating, public ordeal the previous day at the hands of a man who claimed to be her husband, and members of the man’s extended family.Bihani and her team from the jurisdictional police station had managed to locate the woman less than an hour after Surendranagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Premsukh Delu received a call on October 6 morning from a community leader who told him about a certain video circulating on social media.The purported video, shot in a semi-rural locality of Surendranagar, showed an alleged “purification ritual”, in which a woman and her alleged lover were subjected to abject humiliation in public, SP Delu was told.Story continues below this adThe video had allegedly been shot around 9 am on October 5. Police said it showed nine persons, including two women, forcing the victimised woman and her alleged lover to engage in sexual acts while being tied with rope.The acts in the purported video included making the man lick the woman’s private parts, followed by making the woman urinate in a vessel and the man being forced to drink the urine, police said.All nine accused, including the man claiming to be the woman’s husband, have since been rounded up.Police officers said they had been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS) relating to gangrape, voluntarily causing hurt, and wrongful confinement, as well as sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).Story continues below this adAll the accused are members of the extended family of the man who has been claiming to be the husband of the woman, police said.Notably, police said that the prime accused in the case cannot be legally considered to be the husband of the victim, considering that he already had a wife and children in his home in Vapi city of Valsad when he married the victim.“The complainant woman was married in a traditional manner to the main accused in this case, and had gone to live with him in Vapi. But she ran away from there, and came back to live with her lover,” ASP Bihani told The Indian Express.“However”, Bihani said, “the woman was sent back to Vapi, where she would be put in chains inside the house”. Somehow, the woman managed to get her hands on the key and free herself. “She returned to Surendranagar a second time just a week ago,” the officer said.Story continues below this ad“She started to live in the community with her lover and his extended family. But the accused persons found her again and informed the main accused in Vapi. They then took her to the place where the incident took place, and filmed her punishment as well,” ASP Bihani said.Asked about the use of the section relating to gangrape, the officer said, “Forcing someone to commit oral sex is considered rape in law. And since nine people were involved here, we have booked them for gangrape.”Following the rescue of the woman from the house, the police also managed to locate the male victim (her alleged lover) in the video who had managed to escape from the locality.He remains under medical treatment, while the woman is currently in the protection of the state.Story continues below this adSurendranagar Police have found the first wife of the main accused and their children living in Vapi. “That is why we have not called the main accused the ‘husband’ of the complainant woman,” ASP Bihani said.Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujarat. He covers the region's most critical social, legal, and administrative sectors, notably specializing at the intersection of health, social justice, and disasters. Expertise Health and Public Policy: He has deep expertise in healthcare issues, including rare diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the complex logistics of organ transplants, and public health challenges like drug-resistant TB and heat health surveillance. His on-ground reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and Mucormycosis was critical in exposing healthcare challenges faced by marginalized communities in Gujarat. Social Justice and Legal Administration: He reports on the functioning of the legal and police system, including the impact of judicial philosophy, forensics and crucial administrative reforms (. He covers major surveillance and crackdown exercises by the Gujarat police and security on the international border. Disaster and Crisis Management: His work closely tracks how government and civic bodies respond to large-scale crises, providing essential coverage on the human and administrative fallout of disasters including cyclones, floods, conflict, major fires and reported extensively on the AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad. Civic Infrastructure and Governance: Provides timely reports on critical civic failures, including large scale infrastructure projects by the railways and civic bodies, as well as the enforcement of municipal regulations and their impact on residents and heritage. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram