Panchayat forced family to ignore first assault
TURA: West Garo Hills police have arrested two of the five men who allegedly raped a minor girl in a village in Phulbari after the victim’s father lodged an FIR on Wednesday in which he revealed that the village panchayat had forced him to compromise a previous sexual assault on his daughter by the same men. Among the three other accused who are on the run, one is a juvenile.
According to the FIR lodged by the father, the first attack on his young daughter took place on July 14. The men kidnapped the girl at around 3 am and kept her confined in a house of one of the men who has now been arrested.
Instead of lending support to the victim and her family the village council allegedly held a meeting and compelled the father to reach a compromise with the five men who assaulted her.
The village council reportedly assured the victim’s family that the men would not torment them again.
However, three months later, on October 14, the same group once again allegedly targeted the girl while she was attending to the call of nature early in the morning.
Brandishing a dagger, one of the men even threatened to kill her if she raised an alarm. She was saved by her mother and sisters who, coming out of the house to look for her, saw the two men and raised an alarm.
Following the FIR being lodged by the girl’s father, police swiftly arrested two of the prime accused, namely Mobarok Hussain (22) and Mozahidur Islam (21) while three other accomplices, including a juvenile are on the run. The arrested men have been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Cases of sexual assaults being compromised in the villages is nothing new. Many incidents continue to go unreported due to the stigma as well as the forced coercion by village elders who use their clout to settle cases which otherwise should be in a court of law.
