MEERUT: A woman, in her early 20s, was “forcibly” taken away and confined to her home while her female partner was publicly humiliated and beaten for resisting the separation in UP’s Baghpat, a region where live-in relationship is still a cultural taboo. And it becomes talk of the town when two women decide to live together.
The alleged incident comes just four days after two girls in neighbouring Shamli district got police protection on the intervention of Allahabad high court. The girls wanted to live together and had feared threat from their families.
The court on Wednesday rejected the petition objecting to their live-in relationship. A division bench said morality of the society cannot affect the decisions of the court. The bench referred to the Supreme Court judgment in which Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was decriminalized. It observed that the petition highlighted the “stark reality” of the society where “citizens are facing discrimination” due to their sexual orientation.
And just four days after the judgment, the woman in Baghpat was forcibly taken away by her family members. Sunday's incident was caught on camera and put on social media platforms.
The family members of the woman barged into their room in Baghpat’s Baraut town and forcibly took her away. The other woman was allegedly thrashed and humiliated in public when she tried to stop them.
She later said, “We had decided to stay together. We are adults and fully understand what we are doing. But our relatives do not understand our relationship. We want to work together for the uplift of society in the field of education. We had also given a written complaint to the police to provide us protection. But, before they could, Seema’s (name changed) relatives came here and thrashed me publicly and even tore my clothes. And they took her away.”
Local police were tight-lipped on the matter.
“We are looking into the matter,” said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity.