A district court in India on Friday sentenced a 45-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for putting “chastity lock” on his wife’s genital area.
Special additional sessions judge A K Singh found Sohan Lal Chouhan guilty under sections 326 (causing grievous hurt) and 498 A (subjecting married woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.
Meanwhile, public prosecutor Jyoti Tomar said Chouhan was arrested in July 2012. Out of the 14 witnesses presented before the court, three — including the couple’s son and daughter — had turned hostile. “However, the son admitted Chouhan had not allowed him to meet his mother in the last four years,” Tomar said. “Besides, the statements of the doctor who had removed the “lock”, the policeman who had recovered the key from Chouhan and an independent witness helped in nailing Chouhan,” he added.
Chouhan’s cruelty had come to light after his wife tried to commit suicide by consuming poison. While trying to insert a tube to extract the poison, hospital doctors were stunned to see the genitals “locked”. She then revealed her husband had done this by performing a crude surgery on her four years ago. In a statement, she said that her husband suspected her of having an extramarital affair.
The woman was married to Chouhan when she was 16 years old. The cruelty came into limelight after she consumed pesticide after Chouhan tried to rape their elder daughter.
