As punishment for his failure to pay the rent for a tractor, a kangaroo court ordered the gang-rape and murder of a farmer’s 17-year-old daughter, who had tried to save her father from being beaten up by locals.
The naked body of the girl was found on Wednesday near railways tracks at Dhupguri in the Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal, a day after she had gone missing.
The kangaroo court in the girl’s village was being overseen by a local Trinamool Congress councillor and her husband. The police believe that the girl was gang-raped and murdered for intervening when locals tried to rough up her father on Monday.
A senior police official said the victim’s father identified her body on Wednesday afternoon and lodged an FIR at the Dhupguri police station against 13 people for rape, murder and kidnap. The body has already been sent for postmortem and the police have detained two persons in connection with the case.
Officials said the trouble began on Monday, when the farmer’s request for more time to make the payment was turned down by the kangaroo court. The girl went missing on Tuesday night, after which Superintendent of Police Kunal Agarwal and Additional Superintendent James Kujur reached the village.
The police said the local Trinamool councillor and her husband were present when the girl came out of her house and pleaded with the kangaroo court not to beat up her father on Monday.
Officials believe she was ushered out of the meeting by a person known to her before she went missing.
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