Bhopal:

Two women were nearly buried alive in Madhya Pradesh when gravel was dumped on them from a dumper. The attack in Hinauta, Rewa district, was a fallout of a land dispute.

The women, Mamta Pandey and Asha Pandey, were buried up to their waist and neck in the pile of gravel. They were eventually rescued by locals. By then, one woman had lost consciousness and required medical attention.

The confrontation occurred in the Mangawa police station area, when a road construction project in the village sparked protests from the women.

They claimed that the land was leased and opposed the construction.

But their objections were ignored, and the situation escalated when the dumper driver, allegedly on orders from local strongmen, dumped gravel on them.

The video of the incident circulated widely shows the women at the back of the dumper just before being buried in gravel.

They were subsequently taken to the Community Health Center in Gangev.

Senior police officer Vivek Lal confirmed the ongoing investigation.

“The women were protesting, and the dumper overturned the gravel, burying them. Both parties have a dispute over family land,” Mr Lal said. “First, there was a physical altercation, and then the gravel was thrown on Mamta and Asha Pandey,” he added.

According to the complaint filed by the victims, they were attacked while trying to prevent gravel from being laid on their leased land. They accused several individuals — Gaukaran Prasad Pandey, Mahendra Prasad Pandey, and others — of assaulting them and ordering the dumper driver to bury them.

State Congress chief Jeetu Patwari criticised the state government’s failure to protect women, highlighting that crimes against women is highest in Madhya Pradesh. Former Union Minister Arun Yadav condemned the dominance of gangsters and alleged that vulnerable groups face continuous harassment under the BJP government.

Mr Lal said the investigation is being conducted thoroughly, and witness testimonies are being analyzed. “A casehas been registered, and we are pursuing all leads,” Mr Lal said.

The Delhi High Court has said that the courts must scrutinise a wife’s complaint or FIR against her husband or his family to determine whether the allegations carry elements of truth or are merely an instance of “clever drafting”.

The high court said though the court is not expected to conduct a mini-trial, it also cannot be a mere spectator and refuse to exercise the power of quashing a criminal case where it finds that continuing with the proceedings would defeat the ends of the justice and amount to insurmountable harassment, agony, and pain to the accused.

This would be an abuse of the criminal process, it said.

Justice Navin Chawla said where the wife is set to implicate the entire family of the husband in a criminal case, it is to be expected that she would get a complaint properly drafted through her lawyer making specific allegations against each one of them.

The high court said it would defeat the ends of justice if only on the basis of such averment, the family members of the husband were to face the agony of trial.

“In my opinion, therefore, the court must scrutinise the complaint/FIR to determine whether the allegations are a case of clever drafting or have at least some element of truth in the same” Justice Chawla said.

The high court’s observations came while quashing an FIR lodged against a man’s maternal uncle and aunt by his estranged wife for the alleged offences of cruelty done to a married woman and criminal breach of trust under the IPC.

It was alleged in the FIR that since the beginning of the marriage, the woman’s husband and his relatives harassed her and beat her, the court noted that while the marriage was solemnised in 1997, the FIR was lodged in 2017, that is, after 23 years.

The husband’s maternal uncle and aunt sought quashing the FIR against them on the ground that they had always lived separately from their nephew and his wife and their names were dragged in the case only because they were his family members.

The high court, in its order, noted that allegations made against the husband’s family members were mostly general and vague.

It allowed the petition and quashed the FIR and consequential proceedings against the man’s relatives. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)