Video surfaces showing man being tortured for eloping with woman

Two video clips have surfaced purportedly showing a tribal man being tortured by the relatives of the woman with whom he had eloped.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathua, Shridhar Patil said they have taken cognizance of the videos and set up special teams to trace the youth and bring the culprits to book.

Shoukat Ali, a resident of Kathua district's Manyari village, reportedly went missing with the woman, Jeelo, on August 16, three days after their wedding was solemnised at the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

Two videos of 33 seconds and 36 seconds showed the man being tortured in an open area as he pleaded for mercy while being tied up with ropes. In one of the videos, he was being beaten up and his legs were held from a hanging log.

"We have taken cognisance of the videos and set up three teams to recover the man and arrest those torturing him. The teams have fanned out and are searching in and outside the state," Patil told PTI.

He said sometime back the girl's family lodged an FIR accusing the man of kidnapping her and "we made the recovery of the girl and handed her to her parents".

A fresh FIR was registered on a complaint that Ali was kidnapped by the girl's family members and was being held hostage, the officer said.

On August 24, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur of the high court had directed the SSP Kathua to ensure that both Ali and his wife were protected against the harm and that her statement was recorded under section 164-A of the CrPC.

The high court passed the directive after advocate Shakeel Ahmad, appearing for the man's father, sought its intervention to safeguard the couple's lives.

The justice took a serious note of the situation, emerging particularly the kidnapping of the couple after their attendance before the court on August 14 where Jeelo had said statement that she had married Ali of her free will, Ahmad said.

He said the court directed the SSP to submit a report in the matter within one week.