Woman chained by in-laws escapes, three arrested

Woman chained by in-laws escapes, three arrested
PRADEEP KAUSHAL

JAIPUR, AUGUST 29: When the frail woman, with heavy iron manacles around her feet, got off a bus at the Jodhpur bus stand yesterday, she attracted a crowd of curious onlookers. The public verdict was that she was a convict who had escaped. The truth dawned on them when a policeman pushed his way through the crowd and got a chilling account of how the woman, Geegu, had been tortured by her husband's family during the past two years and kept in chains for the past two months.

Married to an impotent, unemployed man at Chauhanon ki Dhani village in Osian tehsil of Jodhpur district, she had to live on just two chapatis a day and was often beaten up and harassed for not having brought ``adequate dowry''. She was also forced to do menial work, like making cowdung cakes for others.

Geegu told the police the family of her husband, Ram Singh Chauhan, was afraid that she might desert him since he was impotent. Therefore, two months back they decided to put heavy iron chains around her feet. At night, her mother-in-law, Jhumki Devi, would chain her to a cot with a lock. The rest of the family slept on the terrace in summer while she remained chained to her cot in a dingy room. On Sunday, her mother-in-law forgot to put the lock. The tormented woman slipped out around 4 am, walked up to Osian and came to Jodhpur on a bus.

The constable who heard her tale took her to the women's police station where in-charge Chetana Bhati acted swiftly. She informed district SP Bhupendra, who ordered that the chains be removed. An FIR was lodged at the police station, on the basis of which a case was registered by the Osian police station against her husband, Ram Singh, father-in-law Ganga Singh Chauhan and mother-in-law Jhumki Devi for torture and harassment for dowry under sections 498 A, 406, 323 and 344 of the IPC.

Geegu was then sent with a police party to the Osian police station, where her father, Bastoo Singh, a jeep driver, was summoned. The police arrested the husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law. The police also seized the keys of the lock besides the gold ornaments given by her father at the timeof her marriage. The police conducted a medical examination of Geeguand handed her over to Bastoo Singh.

Eighteen-year-old Geegu of Matoda village was pushed into this nightmare when she was married off to Ram Singh Chauhan two years ago. The match had been arranged by her father's sister, Neema, who was married to a cousin of Chauhan.

Soon after the marriage, she discovered her husband was unable to consummate it. Dowry demands followed, and when they were not fulfilled, her horror story began. She went to visit her father three months ago but didn't complain. On her return after a month, she was greeted by the chains.