2 Indian Women Mercilessly Beaten By Relatives For Chatting With Male Cousins

Two sisters from India's Madhya Pradesh state were allegedly assaulted by their relatives a few weeks ago after the siblings had a chat with their male cousins over the phone, police said Sunday.

The attack against the two victims, aged 19 and 20, occurred on June 22 in a village in the city of Alirajpur, The Times of India reported, citing officer Vijay Vaskale of the Tanda police station.

Footage of the incident, which reportedly showed several people hitting the two sisters with sticks and dragging them by the hair, had gone viral on social media, police said.

"On June 25, we came across a video in which two women were seen being beaten up. While verifying the clip, we came to know that [the victim's] family members were involved in this," Vaskale was quoted as saying.

According to police, the victims' family was allegedly angry over the two sisters talking on the phone with the sons of their maternal uncle. The sisters were confronted by their relatives near a school in their village and were subsequently assaulted with sticks over their objections to the victims talking to their maternal cousins.

The two sisters were brought to the Tanda police station following the assault, where a case was registered based on their complaint, Vaskale said. Seven people were then arrested in connection to the incident, the officer added.

A similar incident happened last week in the neighboring northern state of Uttar Pradesh when a woman and her family were allegedly beaten by her in-laws after she attempted to retake gifts that had been given for her daughter's wedding.

The attack, which had gone viral on Indian social media, allegedly took place near Raura Kalan highway in the district of Rampur.

According to the alleged victim, she wanted to remarry her daughter after her son-in-law passed away due to cancer. She was then allegedly beaten up in the middle of the road when she attempted to take goods that had been given to her daughter as gifts during her wedding three years ago.

Around 10 people were allegedly involved in the assault against the woman and her three family members, the victim claimed.

Several people from both parties had been taken into custody for interrogation following the incident. A probe into the alleged assault had also been ordered.