The photograph of a woman tied to a tree with a gaggle of policemen and onlookers gawking at her may have shocked some newspaper readers in the state. But it did not evoke any condemnation or public outrage. Neither political parties nor the state Government reacted to the report of the woman punished ostensibly by village elders for daring to return to her own village to attend a family wedding. She had been driven out of the village after she had complained to the police against the theft of construction material and named some villagers. Ostracised by the orders of village elders, even the police appeared helpless and failed to intervene.