Uttar Pradesh: The much sort for justice in an unfair judgment was finally delivered, when the village elders of who sentenced two sisters to be raped are facing arrest as a petition calling for a criminal case to be opened against them neared 100,000 signatures last night.
A council of men in India ruled the sisters – one of whom is only 15 – would be raped as punishment after their brother started a relationship with a married woman from a higher social caste.
The punishment was ordered in the impoverished farming village of Sankrot in Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh, around 30 miles north of New Delhi. It is home to 200 people.
India’s Supreme Court has ruled that these village councils,known as panchayats, are illegal but they continue to operate across India.
On July 30, an unelected all-male village council known as a ‘panchayat’ ordered that they be raped and paraded naked as punishment for the actions of their brother, according to Amnesty International
The family home was ransacked shortly after they fled the village for safety in May.
Another one of the girls’ brothers said members of the ‘Jat’ caste are powerful members of the village council and their decision is ‘final’.
They are also worried about the safety of the Jat woman, who is now thought to be pregnant with the brother’s child.
