The village panchayat of Sidhpur in Imamganj in Gaya district of Bihar gave a decision which comes as a shock as well as shame to us. The panchayat asked the guilty to do 51 squats and pay ₹1000 as fine to the victim after he raped her repeatedly.
According to the reports, a girl from Baseta village was repeatedly raped by a youth named Akash for nearly six months. The class 7 victim was first raped while she was returning home from school. The accused thereafter repeatedly raped her by threatening to disclose the matter to her parents.
The girl disclosed the matter to her parents only when she got pregnant. The family approached accused’s family where the accused’s family asked the girl to abort the child and promised to get her married to their son thereafter. Due to the fear of public humiliation and stigma attached to rape they agreed to it but after aborting the child the accused’s family refused to tie the knot.
The thought of marrying a 7th-grade student is first of all absurd, then marrying her to the one who molested her is on another level. But what panchayat did in the name of justice makes us think who are these people who are sitting there and giving the justice which is not at all justified. The panchayat concluded that the physical relation between the accused and the victim was consensual. The panchayat ordered the accused to perform squats 51 times and pay a fine of ₹1,000 to the victim.
Outraged by the panchayat’s diktat, the girl’s family reported the matter to the police. A medical examination on the girl was conducted on Friday; a FIR was registered and the accused has now been registered.
Such cases make us cringe at the mentality of people and the way they process a serious crime like rape. When will panchayats stop treating the guilty with such a soft hand? Will things ever change or rape will always remain associated with izzat? When people like these will stop to say it was girl’s fault or it was consensual?
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