Girija Devi outside the house of her in-laws at Machuatoli in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 23: Neighbours today rescued a woman from the clutches of her abusive in-laws and summoned the police, leading to the arrest of three persons in Machuatoli under Kadamkuan police station area.

A case, however, was not lodged on the pretext that Girija and Suraj were counselled and that the in-laws had later allowed the woman to enter the house and promised not to misbehave with her.

Twenty-nine-year-old Girija Devi was being subjected to constant torture by her in-laws ever since she got married to one Suraj Prasad five years ago. The entire locality rushed to Girija’s help when things spun out of control around 1pm today.

“The girl got married to Suraj, who runs a big garment store in the city. Almost everyday, we heard her shrieks. Since it was a household matter, we could not interfere. At times, we tried to talk to her mother-in-law, Shakuntala, but she rebuffed us,” said a neighbour, refusing to be named.

Around a month back, Girija went to her parent’s place in Sasaram following her father’s death. “Girija’s brother today came to drop her. Soon after, in-laws started beating her. Her brother too was not spared. Half-an-hour later both were thrown out. Girija kept banging on the closed door but in vain. This is when we thought of helping her,” another neighbour said.

Neighbours gave her shelter and got into an altercation with Girija’s in-laws. “We called in the police. We narrated Gija’s ordeal to the cops who escorted the woman inside the house. The police took away Suraj’s father, Ram Chandra Prasad, the mother and other family members with them,” a neighbour said.

An inspector at Kadamkuan police station said: “There were a lot of misunderstandings between the couple. We summoned the husband, who was away at his workplace, to the police station. We had a detailed conversation with him. The family members promised not to misbehave with Girija and took her home with them. The police will take strict action if the action is repeated,” the officer said.