Lucknow, May 7: A molested schoolgirl and a cheated housewife today rushed out of their homes to thrash their male tormentors, rocking a state where millions of women silently suffer exploitation with police refusing to help.

Priya Prasad, 15, entered the home of a priest in Vrindavan and beat him up with a stick hours after, according to her, he had tried to rape her.

Around the same time, Tara Zabi, 21, stormed a wedding hall in Lucknow with her brother and friends and caned her husband who had just got married again without divorcing her.

Women’s activists have been left stunned. “It’s rare for women to assert themselves in Uttar Pradesh’s patriarchal society, where social taboos keep them from even revealing exploitation,” said Sabita Sinha.

Priya accuses Mahant Harishankar, the 43-year-old priest of a neighbourhood temple, of having tiptoed into her home around 8.30 this morning and trying to rape her before she raised an outcry. “If I let him get away with it, he might have been encouraged to attack some other girl,” Priya said.

Her father Lakshmi Prasad followed her into Harishankar’s home to join in the thrashing. The priest, admitted to hospital after being detained and questioned, has denied the charge and told the police the girl was notorious for blackmail. A case has been registered against the priest but officers said they were probing his accusation, too.

Tara barged into Tawat-e-Walima, a wedding hall in Lucknow’s Chowk area, around 9 am just as 32-year-old Reza Ali’s second marriage had been solemnised and the guests had sat down for the feast. With her were her brother, two male family friends and two women’s activists.

As she pounced on her husband with a stick, her escorts and Ali’s friends turned it into a free-for-all. The guests watched horrified, while the bride’s family took her back home.

“I lodged a case against my husband but the police didn’t act,” Tara said. “He has married this woman under a false name while my divorce petition is pending. We were married only two years.”

The police took Ali into custody but also registered a case of rioting against Tara and her companions.