Monsoon Wedding Frogs go Separate Ways

Two months ago, two frogs were married to each other in Indrapuri near the Madhya Pradesh capital to appease the rain god Indra. Now that central state is flooded, the priests who got the amphibians hitched have gotten them divorced.

Quirky rites abound in this country to propitiate the gods for their bounty during monsoon, but a custom to reverse the rains comes as a rarity.

Following disastrous rains in the state in 24 hours from Wednesday to Thursday, the residents, whose houses and shops are flooded, decided to split up the newlyweds.

And now that the couple has been pulled apart, the people are hopeful that they would soon be out of the dire situation.

"The marriage of the frogs was conducted on July 19 for good rainfall this season. But now the state is flooding. Therefore, to please Lord Indra, the frogs were made to part ways," said a person from the Om Shakti Shiv Mandal, the body that organised the special ritual of the frogs' divorce, eight weeks after they were married according to Hindu customs.

Madhya Pradesh has seen a heavy toll due to rains, and the state government has doled out Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the 202 people who lost their lives in the deluge across the state, said an official statement on Thursday.

As many as 32 people have been injured while 9,816 houses damaged due to the excessive rainfall in the state, added the statement.

Source: DNA India

Pregnant Goat Gangraped

Police have booked eight men in a village in Haryana’s Mewat district for raping a goat Wednesday night. The seven-year-old goat was pregnant and died a day after the assault, police said.

Police said the accused are locals and alleged history-sheeters. Three of them were beaten up by villagers in Maroda village about 73 kilometres south of Gurugram after the owner of the goat caught them in the act.

Police have registered a case under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal” and under the Animal Cruelty Act at Nagina police station in Nuh, earlier known as Mewat. The police are yet to make any arrests but say that the accused would be nabbed soon.

“Our team is investigating the case and has recorded the statement of the goat’s owner, who allegedly caught the three accused in the act. We are also in the process of recording the statements of other eyewitnesses and villagers to know the exact sequence of the crime and arrests will be made once we get all the details,” Nazneen Bhasin, superintendent of police, Nuh, said Sunday morning. Five others are yet to be identified.

The owner, Aslup Khan, said his goat went missing from its shed, located adjacent to his house, on Wednesday night after which he and other villagers started looking for it. “It was around 11pm when I heard some noise and went out. The gate of the shed was open. I panicked and raised an alarm, as four of my goats had been stolen in the past and this was the only one left. While we were looking around, we found three men sexually assaulting my goat,” said 27-year-old Khan, a truck driver.

Khan said they caught hold of them and beat them up, but were let off later as they were in an inebriated state and were regular offenders. He further said that the three men told them about five others who had allegedly raped the goat that night. Bhasin said the three men have a criminal record and were jailed in the past for allegedly stealing motorcycles and cattle.

“My goat was injured and lying on the ground. It was not even able to walk. I took it home and applied medicines on the wounds on its head and nose. It did not eat anything the next day and was lying as if it was paralysed,” Khan said.

Police said one of the accused met Khan the next day and mocked him over the condition of the goat.

“He came to me on Thursday and threatened to steal the goat. He laughed and said that he and his friends had a nice time that night, which made me furious. I thrashed him after which he fled the spot,” Khan said.

The condition of goat started deteriorating and it died around 6pm. That’s when the villagers informed police who reached the village on Thursday night.

“We informed the veterinary surgeon as the post-mortem had to be conducted and booked the men involved in the sexual assault,” Bhasin said.

Dr Ramvir Bhardwaj, veterinary surgeon of animal husbandry posted at Nagina said the goat died of brain haemorrhage. “It was 50 weeks pregnant. During the post-mortem examination, it was found that there was blood in her windpipe. Samples of its vaginal swabs were sent to the forensic science laboratory,” Bhardwaj said.

Source: Hindustan Times

Wife Stripped Naked on Video Call

Bengaluru: An Ola driver experienced the worst ride of his life on Friday when he accepted a booking from Adugodi to Dommasandra. Four men, who boarded the taxi, took him to an isolated place and robbed him. The unidentified assailants thrashed him multiple times, video-called his wife demanded her to strip and then took screenshots of her.

The incident occurred around 10.20 pm when he received a booking from four customers. Before reaching the destination, the unidentified assailants asked him to drive further past their home. When the cab reached an isolated place, they assaulted him and took away his car keys. The miscreants then tied him up at the back seat of the car and drove to a burial ground at Ramanagara, where the gang assaulted him once again and demanded money, reports India Today.

Bowing to their demand, the driver gave the gang Rs 29,000 in total (Rs 9,000 cash and Rs 20,000 through Paytm).

The report further states that the unidentified miscreants took him to another isolated place, where they asked him to video call his wife. They then demanded the driver's wife to strip but assaulted him again when his wife denied to do so, thereby forcing the woman to strip during the call. The gang then allegedly took screenshots of the video-call.

Not in the mood to let the driver go, the gang later took him to a lodge from where he managed to escape on the pretext of going to the bathroom. The driver then reached Adugodi Police Station and registered a complaint for alleged blackmail, assault and for outraging the modesty of a woman.

Ola, issuing a statement on the matter said, "This is an extremely unfortunate incident and we deeply regret the harrowing experience the driver-partner and his family have allegedly been put through."

"We strongly condemn such acts of assault and have blacklisted the customer’s Ola account immediately on the complaint being registered with us. We are in touch with the driver-partner to extend support to him, and have been assisting the investigating authorities with all necessary information," it added.

Source: Mid-Day