CALCUTTA: A 20-year-old Indian girl was gang-raped in the East Indian state of Bengal allegedly after orders of rural council of elders, ‘Panchayat’ on January 20.
The victim belonging to Birbhum district had a love affair with a boy from other tribe, for which both the girl’s and boy’s families were ordered to pay Rs25,000 each.
On failing to pay fine amount, the girl was raped brutally allegedly by men of her father’s and brother’s age followed by the Panchayat’s orders, British media reported.
According to police, the panchayat leader named ‘Mandi’ in the police file , said that the girl’s family have not paid penalty, so, ‘Go and Enjoy with the girl’.
The earth shattering incident happened on Monday while the victim’s family registered it with police on Wednesday despite thinking the severe consequences from the tribal powers in future.
So far, 13 people including the village chieftain have been arrested by the police.
The love affair of the victim with a resident of a nearby Chohata village was started five years back but an inauspicious moment was seen when the boy came to her house in Raja Rampur village with a marriage proposal.
Both lovers were presented before Panchayat on committing the ‘crime’ for standing together, which led both families to pay a 25000 penalty.
The girl’s family could not pay the penalty and thus the girl was raped.
According to a local NGO, the number of such incidents in the district is quite high but only a few are reported like the 2010 incident of ‘naked march’ of a girl ordered by panchayat on the same grounds as this one.
It must be remembered that rape laws in the country were made more rigid after last year’s Dehli rape which gathered international attention , but the crime is nowhere on the decline in India.
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