Uttar Pradesh: Video of couple brutally beaten up in Maharajganj goes viral; police arrests two

A video of a couple being thrashed in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj district has surfaced online almost a week after the incident happened. The couple was brutally thrashed by goons in the name of moral policing and the incident was captured on camera by one of the goons.

A couple brutally thrashed by goons in Maharajganj, UP when they were found in a nearby jungle, collecting fire wood pic.twitter.com/CjkmzX4RXm

— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 20, 2017

The police filed an FIR and two of the accused, residents of Banarsinha village in the district, have been arrested in connection with the case, according to a Deccan Herald report. The girl, who is a minor, alleged that she was forced to strip and pose indecently with her lover by the miscreants. When she told her parents about the incident, they approached the local police to lodge a case against the accused. However, the police allegedly asked the girl’s family to let the incident go in exchange for Rs 37,000 because the girl would face social humiliation if the matter became public, Times Now  reported. [caption id=“attachment_3804419” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The local police launched an investigation only when senior police officials took cognisance of the video. Opposition parties have accused the BJP government in the state of not doing enough to crack down on goons and prevent such incidents. In April, Hindu Yuva Vahini members allegedly barged into a home in Meerut and thrashed a young couple on suspicion of ’love jihad’. The boy accused the group’s members of moral policing. The anti-Romeo squads constituted by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath have also been  accused of harassment  and it had aroused concerns that the squad members may indulge in moral policing.