Indore’s Dussehra Twist: 11-Faced Shurpanakha Effigy to Burn Faces of Accused Women, Igniting Gender Justice Fury

Men’s rights group Paurush plans symbolic ‘Surpanakha Dahan’ on October 2, featuring Sonam Raghuvanshi and 10 others in a procession against ‘modern demons’—but critics slam it as misogynistic spectacle amid rising domestic crime debates

By NewsArc Bureau

Indore | September 19, 2025

In a provocative reimagining of the age-old Dussehra ritual, Indore’s men’s rights organization Paurush is set to torch an 11-faced effigy of Shurpanakha—the demoness from the Ramayana—on October 2, Vijayadashami, instead of the traditional Ravana. The massive puppet, crafted by veteran effigy artist Kalu who has shaped the city’s iconic 100-foot Ravana for 25 years, will bear the faces of 11 women accused in high-profile crimes, including the gruesome honeymoon murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi by his wife Sonam. Organizers hail it as a bold call for gender-neutral justice, but the move has exploded into a nationwide firestorm, with feminists decrying it as a regressive assault on women’s dignity.

The event, dubbed “Surpanakha Dahan,” unfolds at the Damha Mahalaxmi Nagar Mela Ground, where the effigy will parade through Indore’s bustling streets amid thumping drums, traditional folk performances, and chants. Starting at 4 PM, the procession will weave past key landmarks before culminating in the symbolic burning at 6:30 PM, inviting victim families and the public to witness what Paurush calls a “warning against societal vices.” “This isn’t about height or spectacle like the Ravana races—it’s about a towering message,” declared Paurush president Ashok Dashora in a Thursday meeting with Kalu, emphasizing that the effigy’s cost, yet undecided, pales against its intent to spotlight “Kalyugi Shurpanakhas” preying on men and families.

At the effigy’s heart is Sonam Raghuvanshi, the 25-year-old prime accused in the May 2025 slaying of her husband Raja, a 30-year-old transport tycoon, during their Meghalaya honeymoon. Married on May 11, the couple arrived in Shillong on May 21, but Raja vanished after a May 23 selfie stop at Weisawdong Falls. His body, battered by a daaw (curved knife) and hurled into a gorge, surfaced on June 2. Meghalaya Police’s 790-page chargesheet accuses Sonam of masterminding the plot with lover Raj Kushwaha and hitmen Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput, and Anand Kurmi—after three botched attempts in Guwahati and Sohra. Sonam, who surrendered in Ghazipur, UP, on June 8, allegedly planned a grisly fallback: shoving Raja off a cliff herself if the killers faltered. Her bail plea looms in Sohra court on September 17, with Raja’s kin demanding narco tests to unearth the “full truth.”

Flanking Sonam are faces of 10 other women ensnared in alleged spousal betrayals and worse, from Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai:

– **Muskan Rastogi (Meerut, UP)**: The 27-year-old, with lover Sahil Shukla (aka Mohit), allegedly drugged and stabbed ex-Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Kumar Rajput, 29, on March 3, 2025, post his London return. They dismembered his body, sealed it in a cement-filled blue drum, and fled to Himachal—uncovered when a mover pried it open on March 18. Muskan’s family, horrified, demands her hanging; a custody war rages over their 6-year-old daughter Pihu.

– **Hansa Patel (Dewas, MP)**: Accused in the October 2024 vanishing and skeletal remains of husband Praveen Patel, 28, found in a canal on November 28. His mother Ranjana alleges Hansa and 13 relatives orchestrated the murder post-Karva Chauth, though police deem it an accident.

– **Ravita Kashyap (Meerut, UP)**: With her paramour, allegedly strangled husband Amit Kashyap in April 2025.

– **Shashi Devi (Firozabad, UP)**: Poisoned husband with lover’s aid in July 2025.

– **Nikita Singhania (Jaunpur, UP)**: Abetted AI engineer husband Atul Subhash’s suicide in Bengaluru, December 2024.

– **Sushmita Dev (Delhi)**: Murdered husband Karan Dev with lover in July 2025.

– **Gudiya Devi (Mumbai)**: Killed husband Vijay Chauhan in July 2025.

– **Harsha Padiyar (Indore, MP)**: Abetted photographer husband Nitin Padiyar’s suicide in January 2025.

The remaining two faces spotlight women in fraud, cybercrime, trafficking, and organized rackets, per organizers. Kalu, etching the effigy with “special care” to evoke Shurpanakha’s mythic allure through expressive features, promised completion by Navratri’s end: “It’s our first female figure—challenging, but a honor.”

Paurush, founded to aid “patni peedit” (wife-tormented) men, frames the dahan as a societal alarm on “vicious distortions” like false cases and domestic violence against husbands, echoing Ram’s triumph over adharma. Posters and vehicle banners blanket Indore, with audio vans rallying crowds; Raghuvanshi kin are special invitees. Yet, backlash thunders: Women’s groups like SEWA label it “patriarchal revenge porn,” arguing it vilifies accused women—presumed innocent—while ignoring systemic misogyny. “Burning effigies mocks justice; address root causes, not spectacle,” fumed activist Ritu Singh on X, where #SurpanakhaDahan trends with 50,000 posts, split between cheers for “men’s voices” and cries of “toxic masculinity.”

As Navratri crescendos, Indore’s Dussehra—typically a frenzy of towering Ravanas and fireworks—now wrestles with reinvention. Will the flames purify or polarize? Paurush vows more such events; detractors petition authorities for a ban. In a nation grappling with 4.5 lakh domestic violence cases yearly (NCRB 2024), this fiery gambit underscores a raw quest: Whose evil do we burn?