A 27-year-old married lady from Saundana village in Beed, Maharashtra, was brutally raped, starved, and her menstruation blood was sold for Rs 50,000 to be used in some witchcraft procedures. The state officials on Friday confirmed the event.
Manisha Kayande, an MLC for the Shiv Sena (UBT), brought up the matter in the Maharashtra Legislative Council and called for severe punishment for those responsible for the crime, which strangely surfaced on the eve of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.
According to the reports, the Vishrantwadi police station in Pune has filed an FIR against seven suspects, including the victim’s husband and his parents. This is after the woman’s maternal family’s insisted and sought justice in the case.
“The victim has stated in her complaint that she was starved for three days during her monthly periods and her menstrual blood was collected and sold to someone for Rs 50,000 for some black magic purposes,” Kayande said.
The woman mentioned in the complaint that since their love marriage in 2019, her husband and in-laws had been abusing her for a variety of reasons, while the specific justifications, such as dowry demands or other factors – were unknown.
“After this she filed a domestic violence complaint against her husband and mother-in-law. Following a police complaint, her in-laws took her into custody and took her to her native village in Beed district for burial in 2021. In 2022, while the woman’s husband was out for work, her mother demanded her menstrual blood. After hearing this strange story, the woman asked how can you ask me for such things,” informed the police.
She said that recently, while she was having her monthly periods, her in-laws had tied her up, collected her menstrual blood using cotton swabs, and then sold it for Rs 50,000 to a witchcraft practitioner.
The Pune police have booked all the suspects under sections 377, 354 (a), 498 (a), 504, 323 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sections of Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and the Black Magic Act. Further inquiry in the case seems to be on. Chandrakant Patil, the BJP’s Pune Guardian Minister, has also expressed outrage at the occurrence of the incident and has instructed the police to implement the toughest laws for all those guilty.
