A village head's husband and four of his family members have been accused of attacking and chopping off the hands of a man in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh.

The Friday evening incident allegedly happened because the victim, Somesh Gurjar, had grabbed the main accused by the collar during an argument, reported The Times Of India. The village head's husband, Bhagwan Singh, along with his father and three more have been arrested.

The victim and Singh, who live in Chourahet village in Babai region, are distant relatives. Police said that they got into a dispute in Itarsi during procurement of crops on Friday morning. Singh allegedly felt humiliated when Gurjar grabbed his collar in front of people. Other farmers joined in to ease the situation, but Singh was allegedly thinking of revenge. Gurjar was attacked in the evening while he was returning home from the market, said Hoshangabad SP Santosh Singh Gaur.

Gurjar said in his complaint that Singh and four others stopped him near a canal and attacked him with sticks. Then Singh and his father chopped off his hands with sickles, and left. Gurjar somehow managed to reach home, but he couldn't take his severed hands with him. His family members took him to a hospital and also went looking for his hands, but it was too late to get the severed parts reattached.

Gaur said that the victim is undergoing treatment at a hospital, where his surgery is being done, as per Free Press Journal. He is in a critical condition.

In a separate incident, an RTI activist was attacked by unknown people in Magadi Road, Southwest Bengaluru, on Thursday. The suspects cut off his right leg and right hand, and nearly severed his left hand, reported Deccan Herald.

The victim, Venkatesh, was attacked by about five armed, motorcycle-borne people near his farmland in Tavarekere, Ramanagar district, in the morning. After hearing his screams, Venkatesh was found by passersby in a pool of blood. They called an ambulance and took him to a hospital. Venkatesh underwent surgery and was declared to be out of danger.

A police officer said that the case looked like “a revenge attack." Venkatesh had filed several applications under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, asking for details of various public projects and exposing corruption by government officials.

Handcuffs
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