A village panchayat in Bihar has asked a mahadalit woman, allegedly raped by a ward member of the panchayat, to take some money from the accused and forget the incident.
Police officers said that on December 15 last, Prakash Ravidas, a ward member of the Kodha panchayat in Katihar district, called the woman to the panchayat building for readying documents for her to get the benefit of the Indira Awas Yojna. After he raped her, the woman reported the matter to the village panchayat, which asked her to take Rs. 41,000 from him and hush it up. The woman agreed, but Ravidas refused to pay up. Later, he barged into her thatched house with some others and poured kerosene on her husband and set him ablaze. He was injured.
After the woman and her husband approached the Katihar Superintendent of Police on Friday, an FIR was filed against four persons in the Kodha station.
“Acting on her complaint, the police arrested Naresh Ravidas. However, the main accused is still absconding,” district police chief Kshatraneel Singh told The Hindu .
