20.4.11

TIMES OF INDIA

Panchayat lets rapist walk free, minor victim dies

LUCKNOW: In a preposterous edict, a village panchayat in Ghaziabad ordered the rapist of a five-year-old girl to be slapped a few times even as the traumatised child died of excessive loss of blood.

Shanti (name changed), the only daughter of Mangu Giri and Sunita, was brutally assaulted by one Om Pal (24) in Shahpur village in Ghaziabad late on Sunday while they bought grocery from a neighbourhood market.

As the couple returned home, they heard the screams of their daughter and rushed in, only to find her in the grips of Om Pal, who also happens to be their distant relative. The shocked parents shouted for help and Om was caught with the help of neighbours.

Next, the Shahpur village panchayat sat in judgment and asked the accused to apologise to Shanti's parents. ''The panchayat also declared the accused to be slapped a few times for his crime. But Om Pal's parents told me they had already thrashed him,'' said Mangu to the police on Tuesday.

The panchayat also ordered Mangu, a labourer at a brick kiln, not to take his profusely bleeding daughter to hospital as it would needlessly involve the police. Mangu and Sunita were forced to keep Shanti at home and tried household remedies which were of no use.