Rapists don’t have much to be bothered about, if they are a resident of Bhagwanpur village of Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar district.
The reason is, panchayat in this district reportedly set free the accused for raping a Dalit girl after hitting him five strikes of the shoe and slapping a penalty of Rs 5,000 on him.
The incident took place on 25 march when 22- year old Kala, her neighbour allegdely raped the 19 year- old victim when she had gone to collect fodder from the field.
Astonishingly, the victim’s family was told to approach the panchayat when they approached the Ranjitpur police post.
In the meeting, the panchayat come to a decision that five shoe strikes was an appropriate punishment for the rapist.
Surprisingly, the entire incident took place in presence of police officials; however the officials denied that any policemen were being there during the panchayat session.
Locals preferred to keep themselves at bay from the matter.
“I cannot say whether it was a case of rape or just a quarrel. The accused man was slapped with shoes, I heard,” said Mayaram, a resident of the village.
The victim’s family is supposed to stay unvoiced due to tremendous pressure from the panchayat.
“The victim is not giving any statement. No medical examination has been conducted so far,” said State Women’s Commission vice-chairperson Suman Dahiya.
According to Manipal, the village headman, the panchayat meeting was called “to discuss a quarrel and not a rape case”, adding that it was “settled in the presence of two policemen.”