Bhopal: A panchayat in a Madhya Pradesh village issued a diktat to a minor rape victim to throw community feast for her “purification” and declared her outcast when she failed to meet the demand, official reports said on Thursday.
The 16-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped by a youth of her village, Dongarpur, in Rajgarh district last week, on Thursday lodged a complaint against the panchayat in this regard with the local women welfare committee.
“The rape victim along with her mother filed a complaint with the Rajgarh district women welfare committee seeking action against the panchayat or village elders for ordering their ostracisation for not entertaining the locals with a community feast in order to purify her”, a member of the committee said.
The girl was waylaid when she was returning home and then raped by the accused. The accused was later arrested and sent to judicial custody.
According to the complaint filed by the victim, the police said that the rape victim and her parents were summoned by the village elders to ‘hear’ the matter and later were ordered to throw a community feast for her ‘purification’.
The panchayat allegedly declared them outcast when they expressed their inability to throw the feast pleading that they were too poor to afford it.
State home minister Bala Bachhan on Thursday sought a report on the incident from the local administration.
