Woman paraded naked on donkey

Jaipur: A woman has been stripped naked and paraded on a donkey on the orders of a village council in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, police say.

The 45-year-old woman's face was also blackened on the orders of community leaders in the tribal village in Rajsamand district. The woman was punished after she was accused of killing her nephew by his family.

Thirty-nine people have been arrested for the crime.

Orders given by village councils - panchayats - carry no legal weight but are widely respected in rural areas. Senior police official Shweta Dhankhad said that on November 2, a 45-year-old man, Vardi Singh, killed himself in Thurawad village.

His family held his funeral, but three days later, his wife and some other relatives went to the police alleging that Singh had been killed by his aunt.

On Saturday night, however, the family approached the village council which agreed that the aunt was guilty of murder.

On the council's order, the woman's head was shaved and her face was blackened with coal dust, she was stripped naked and taken around the village on a donkey.

"It's a shameful incident that a woman was treated so badly on orders from the village council," Dhankhad said.

"Initially, she was even afraid to talk about what had happened to her but after the police and officials from the social welfare department arrived, she was able to feel a little safe and narrate her ordeal," she added.