14 Arrested for Rape and Murder of Minor in Jharkhand’s Chatra

The accused were allegedly enraged after the village panchayat imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on them.

Fourteen men accused of gangraping and burning a minor to death in Jharkhand’s Chatra district on Friday have been arrested on 5 May, ANI reported.

After investigation, we found that village panchayat fined the accused of Rs 50,000. The accused, with some of his friends, went to the girl’s house and set the house on fire. Girl died in the fire. Till now, we have caught 14 people.

Ashish Batra, IG Police ANI

The village panchayat had imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 and asked the accused to do sit-ups for raping the girl the night before, the Hindustan Times report quoted the police as saying.

Enraged at the decision, the accused and his gang torched the girl in Raja Kendua village under the Itkhori police station in Chatra, the report stated.

Family members of the victim allege that the girl was abducted from her relative’s house where she was to take part in a marriage ceremony and then raped before being let off.

Before setting the girl on fire, the accused had brutally thrashed up her parents, alleged the father, the HT report added.

After the incident, we approached the village elders who suggested holding a panchayat in the village on Friday morning to decide the punishment. When the panchayat imposed a cash penalty, the accused and his men got infuriated and started thrashing us. We ran away to save our lives

Victim’s Father to HT

(With inputs from Hindustan Times and ANI)

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