Samuktala (Alipurdar), April 1: A 28-year-old married woman complained in an FIR today that she was beaten up by villagers who cut a portion of her hair after accusing her of an illicit relationship with a neighbour.

Sharmila Hembram, who denied the relationship, went to police after the arrival of her husband Philip Kisku from Mumbai. Philip, a daily labour, claimed his wife was innocent.

The incident had occurred on March 16. “For the next seven days, I was not allowed to step outside the house,” Sharmila said. She lives with her two daughters in the Sakletala area of Samuktala gram panchayat, 23km from here.

Sharmila said the villagers, who alleged that she had a relationship with Raghu Mazda, threatened to kill her if she approached the police. On the night of March 16, Raghu’s brothers Samuel and Manshing Mazda along with Pravat Narjinary, the local Congress gram panchayat member, and seven women from the area dragged Sharmila out from the hut and took her to the house of Emanuael Kisku, the village headman.

After Sharmila’s hands were tied to a bed there, the women cut of her hair. They then beat her up. She was allowed to return only after two hours, but warned against going to the police. “They had dragged me out around 10pm. By the time I got back, I was not in a position to see what the time was, but it was almost after two hours.”

After a week, Sharmila met the local gram panchayat pradhan Sukumar Ghosh, who told her to forget about the incident.

Narjinary switched off his cellphone when The Telegraph tried to contact him.

The pradhan, however, denied having met Sharmila. “I am unaware of the incident. The woman had not come to me. But this sort of attack should not be tolerated.”

Basudev Sarkar, the officer-in-charge of Samuktala police station, confirmed having received the FIR. No arrests have been made yet.