From Our Special Correspondent GUWAHATI: Police have arrested three persons who were part of a mob engaged in the assault of a girl in Goalpara district in what was termed as a “serious case of moral policing.” Police sources said the 22-year-old woman who is from the Garo community had lodged a complaint alleging she was attacked by a mob for being with a Muslim man when she was already engaged to another who belonged to her community. The woman in her complaint said she was on her way to the Krishnai market on Sunday afternoon when she met her friend who stopped his motorcycle at Paikan (near Garo Hills) to buy something. She was standing near the motorcycle when four persons known to her came and grilled her before the assault. “The arrested persons were identified from a phone-recorded video that went viral on social media following the incident on Sunday afternoon and was later collected by us. We had detained 12 persons the next day,” Goalpara superintendent of police Amitava Sinha, told The Shillong Times on Tuesday. The video shows the woman, who was clad in blue jeans and a black T-shirt, being pulled by the hair and pushed and shoved by the mob of at least 25 men. One of them was seen kicking her repeatedly as she pleaded for mercy, hugging her friend out of fear as the mob milled around the duo and hurled verbal abuses. Another was seen clicking pictures of the girl despite the latter trying to cover her face. The SP however wished not to divulge the names of the trio as investigation was under way to trace the others involved in the attack. “We are trying to figure out if there were more involved in the attack. This is a serious case of moral policing and such an incident has not taken place in the area,” Sinha said. A case was registered at Krishnai police station under non-bailable Section 354 (B) IPC. Suo motu case The Assam State Commission for Women (ASCW) meanwhile has registered a suo motu case in this regard. “We have registered a suo moto case in this regard,” ASCW chairperson, Chikimiki Talukdar, told this correspondent on Tuesday. “We condemn the incident in no uncertain terms. People cannot take law in their hands like this. If there was anything amiss they could have informed the police. But that not being the case, we want all the guilty persons behind bars and strict action taken against them,” Talukdar said. Civil society groups in Meghalaya have also condemned the act and sought stringent punishment to the guilty. “We condemn this act of vigilantism. No one can stop someone or a woman from talking to another person from another religion or community. We shall not tolerate this act. This also leads to communal hatred which again no religion will perpetrate. So we urge that authorities should not let the arrested persons out on bail so that it sends a signal that the society will never tolerate such acts,” Agnes Kharshiing, the president of Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO),  told The Shillong Times.