Assam citizens’ forum seeks action against village ‘kangaroo court’ members

Shillong, Nov 10: The Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA), while expressing utter dismay over the diktat of a group of villagers to send a native woman out of the locality for illicit relationships, urged the authorities concerned, including the National Commission for Women (NCW), to take necessary action against the villagers to pronounce and implement the decision.

The forum of nationalist citizens also dared the village headman, who was reportedly instrumental in realising that particular decision, to reveal names of all those “holy men” who frequented the woman’s house in her husband’s absence.

Local media reports narrate a shocking story that a middle-aged woman from Dighala Chapori village under Lakhimpur district in eastern Assam was banished for 12 years as she was ‘found’ having illicit relationship with several men. It was decided in a kangaroo court, presided over by the village-headman, to chase away the woman with her teenage son.

“The decision to send a woman (whose husband is out of Assam for employment) with her son out of the village is not only illegal but also cruel in nature. It might push the boy into a world of insecurity and crime. Nonetheless, a village itself or its headman does not enjoy the authority to issue such a diktat in our country,” said a PPFA statement, adding that the state police department should immediately take the initiative to book the culprits under the law.