Rs.85,000 as costs for gangrape, elders ask victim to divorce hubby

Making a mockery of justice, a self styled panchayat, of elders at Garhi village in Bihar in Jamui district ordered four youths to pay an amount of Rs.85,000 to a married Muslim woman as a compensation for her gang rape by them and also decreed that the 'defiled' woman has to divorce her husband and look for another suitor. Rubhira Khatoon was allegedly raped in the last October. The panchayat judgement came in December, two months after the lady lodged an FIR in the Khaira police station against the four tormentors. This episode came into limelight on Friday, when police turned heat on the FIR and one of them surrendered in the court of Jamui CJM Mohd Ajazuddin. Reetlal Ravidas, one of the accused, even produced a copy of the written agreement reached with Rubhira at the panchayat meeting and sought bail on this ground. Prosecution counsel Gyanachandra Bharadwaj told the court while opposing the bail that this is injustice of the worst kind. According to the prosection, Rubina was alone at her husband's home when Zainul Mian and Mohd Mumtaz visited her. She was told that her mother was ill and wished to meet her before breathing her last. She was acquainted with the two men and she asked them to wait until her husband is back home and they insisted on immediate departure, saying her mother's condition was serious. Bharadwaj told that they had a brought a Bolero in which she was drove to a home where she was held captive and sexually assaulted for three days. She was later again shifted to another house where she was again gang raped for three more days. Rubina named them as Munnu Mian besides Zainul, Mumtaz and Reetlal. Freed from their capture, she explained her woes to her husband, a daily wage earner and thereby filed an FIR. While the police took their own time in taking the action on the woman's compliant, village elders sat for a meeting and handed her a written agreement. Though Rubina signed the paper, she did not accept the compensation of Rs. 85,000 and also continued her living with her husband. Agreeing with the prosecution counsel, the CJM rejected the bail petition of Reetlal. The three other accused are still at large. Reported by      AR