Known for their bizarre and shocking decisions, a panchayat in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahar district, devised a novel way to deal with a rape case.
The victim is a minor and the alleged culprit was a 50-year-old man with eight children.
The panchayat ordered the families of the victim and the culprit to leave the town
immediately as their continuance could have a ‘bad effect’ on other residents.
The victim had also delivered a baby a few days back, and the panchayat arranged
to have the it ‘sold’ to to someone else.
Culprit made MMS
According to reports, the culprit, a tailor who had a shop at Khurja town in the district, had been ‘sexually exploiting the child, who lived in
his neighbourhood with her mother.
The culprit had allegedly made an MMS clip of the 16-year-old and was blackmailing her for the past year.
When he was told that the victim was pregnant he fled from the area.
Girl’s fate
Her mother took the girl to a hospital in nearby Aligarh town where she delivered a baby boy.
The local people came to know about the matter when the victim and her mother returned home from the hospital recently.
A panchayat of some influential people was convened to discuss the matter.
After hours of deliberations held on Monday, the panchayat ordered that the families
of both the victim and the alleged culprit could not live in the locality any longer.
Bad for society
The panchayat believes that their presence would have had an adverse effect on the locality.
The Panchayat also got the baby sold to a childless couple so that the victim will not have to carry the burden of her ‘sin’, sources said.
The victim along with her mother had left on Tuesday. The culprit’s family was also in the process of leaving.
Police officials said they had no information about the panchayat’s ruling. “No one has approached us so far,” said a police official.
“The matter will be looked into and the guilty will be punished,” he added.
