Teenager raped, left pregnant by father; kangaroo court has her whipped

Mumbai: A teenage girl, who was sexually abused by her father for over four months, was whipped ten times by a kangaroo court in Maharashtra’s Satara district after she was found ‘guilty’ of not resisting rape.

Anita (name changed) was beaten on the orders of the local village panchayat after her father confessed to the crime.

According to a report in The Washington Post, seven village ‘elders’ decided that Anita was to be blamed for the incident as the father was drunk and was not in his senses.

The panchayat also fined her a sum of over 3,000 rupees as fine and ruled that both the father and daughter be whipped.

The father was beaten ten times, while Anita was whipped five times.

The incident was caught in a mobile phone camera and submitted as evidence to the police, who have arrested all the seven panchayat members.

Her father has been arrested on charges of child abuse.

Speaking to the reporter, Anita said “It did not hurt me because they beat me very lightly, I asked them to beat me because I was at fault.”

“The fault was that I did not tell anyone about this at home. I told them my father just held my hand. That was my mistake,” she added.

Anita who hails form the Gopal community, lost her mother a couple of years ago, had never been to school and did daily chores around the house.

Some reports also claim that Anita was pregnant and was subjected to sexual assault by her father for a period of over four months.

Adhering to the traditions of the community where a girl who has been raped is married off to avoid ‘shame’, Anita is set to marry a 21-year-old widower.