For not retracting her statement in court, Rajasthan rape victim faces social boycott
The woman alleged that a caste panchayat had ordered her to change her statement in court failing which they declared her and her family as outcasts
A 20-year-old victim of alleged rape and her family in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh are facing social boycott ordered by a caste a panchayat reportedly the woman refused to change her statement in the court against the accused.
The woman filed a complaint with the police on May 7, a senior official said Friday.
In the complaint, the woman alleged that the caste panchayat had ordered her to change her statement in court against the accused, with whom she had earlier been in a live-in relationship. When she refused to do so, a diktat was passed declaring the woman and her family as outcasts. Villagers, she alleged in her complaint, were ordered to deny them any support or food grains. The family was even forced to pay a fine of ₹11, 000, she alleged.
The woman told news agencies that when the case was underway, “some villagers came and threatened us to withdraw the case and compromise, to which we denied, following which they have been boycotting us.”
Chittorgarh SP Prasann Khamesra confirmed that the family has given him a written complaint against the panchayat. “We have registered a case against the panchayat and launched investigation into it based on the complaint,” he said.
Kapasan police station SHO Babu Lal Regar said the woman, a divorcee, was in a live-in relationship with the accused. However, in 2017, she got a case of rape registered against him. The accused allegedly gave her some intoxicating substance and made some videos, which he used later to blackmail and rape her.
Police filed the charge sheet in the case and it is at the trial stage in court.
The SHO said the case against the panchayat was under investigation and appropriate action will be taken against the guilty.