Rayagada: In a shocking case of cruelty and caste-based vigilantism, a young couple in Odisha's Rayagada was tied to a wooden yoke like oxen and forced to plough a field by villagers upset over their love marriage.
The incident, which was captured on camera, triggered outrage on social media and led to a police investigation.
Beaten, tied-up and Paraded for Love
The couple, from Kanjamajhira village, had recently married, but their union faced strong opposition from locals who deemed the relationship taboo. The young man is the son of the woman’s paternal aunt, a match considered unacceptable by local custom.
To “punish” them, villagers tied both the man and the woman to a yoke typically used for oxen. In the disturbing video now circulating online, two men can be seen beating the couple with sticks as they drag the wooden beam across a field under the midday sun. Onlookers can be heard offering no help, and no one intervenes.
After this degrading act, the couple was taken to the village shrine and forced to undergo so-called purification rituals, meant to "cleanse" their alleged moral transgression.
Superintendent of Police S Swati Kumar confirmed on Friday, July 11, that a team had visited the village to conduct a preliminary investigation.
The incident has not only sparked condemnation online but also renewed calls for urgent action against such caste- and custom-driven violence, which continues to plague parts of rural India.
