A Dalit woman was beaten, stripped and tied to a tree in a forest for the whole night on Wednesday over her alleged extra-marital affair Jharkhand's Giridih district.

The incident took place at Kovadiya village under the Sariya police station of Giridih, some 240km from Jharkhand capital Ranchi. The local police on getting information reached the forest and rescued the half-naked woman tied to an eucalyptus tree in the forest at around 7am on Thursday. Police claimed to have nabbed four persons involved in the incident.

The traumatised woman was rushed to a government hospital for treatment and on the basis of her complaint lodged with the police, she was called out of her home by a person around 11pm on Wednesday.

In the complaint, the woman aged around 25 years has said that as she got out of her house two men forcefully made her sit on a bike and took her to a forest nearly a kilometre away from her house.

In the forest, two women were standing and the two men and the women started assaulting her with their hands and also tore her clothes. The torn clothes were used to tie her to an eucalyptus tree. She remained tied to the tree for the whole night. Later in the morning police arrived and rescued her.

Sub-divisional police officer Sariya Naushad Alam said that four persons named by the woman have been arrested by the police after raids.

“All four persons are from the same village and are known to the woman. They have confessed to the crime and have alleged that the married woman had illicit relations with one of their family members aged around 19 years. They even threatened both the woman and the family member to stop the relationship. But they continued to meet and this led them to teach the woman a lesson. We have arrested all four accused. The woman's condition is stable and is in hospital,” claimed Naushad Alam.

The police official said the accused belonged to Other Backward Class while the woman was a Dalit.

Those who have been arrested include Vikash Sonar, Shrawan Kumar, Rekha Devi and Munni Devi (both wives of Vikash Sonar). Cases have been lodged against the accused under several relevant sections of IPC including SC/ST Atrocities Act.