The incident happened in Isanagar police station area of Lakhimpur Kheri district area at a time when the accused could not find the victim’s husband.

According to police, no one in the village came to the victim’s help when she was being assaulted and stripped by the relatives and neighbours of the woman who had eloped. The police came to know about the incident by a person of the nearby village where the victim was left after the incident.

Lakhimpur District Magistrate (DM) Abhishek Prakash and SP Amit Chandra visited the place and arrested five persons.

Chandra told The Sunday Express that Saturday incident was sequel to the elopement of 22-year-old Jayanti, married daughter of one Hardwari Lal. Jayanti, who had been staying at her father’s place in Chandwapur village for last two years after separation from her husband, had an affair with one Mannu of the same village. She went missing from her house on October 4.

Since Mannu was staying in Lucknow for last one month, Hardwari Lal and his sons - Pramod and Ram Chandra - suspected that Mannu’s neighbour Darbari Lal had helped Jayanti elope, the SP said.

While Darbari Lal was away, Hardwari Lal and his sons picked up his wife forcibly from her house and brought her to their place Friday night. They allegedly tortured her while asking her about the whereabouts of her husband and Mannu, Chandra added.

He said in the morning Hardwari Lal left his house to get an FIR lodged about his daughter’s elopement while his sons and neighbours - Mahesh and Sone Lal - stripped Darbari Lal’s wife forcibly and paraded her naked in the village.

The accused also assaulted the woman while parading her. None of the locals intervened. The woman was left outside the village by the accused. The police were informed about the incident by a person of the nearby village.

The police arrested the four accused. Hardwari Lal, who was already present at the police station, was also taken into custody for abducting the woman from her house, detaining her illegally at his house and torturing her, Chandra said.