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Birbhum (Bengal) – A tribal woman has alleged that she was gang-raped in the Mohammad Bazar area of Bengal’s Birbhum District because she defied people in her village and had a relationship with a youth from a non-tribal community. Because she was unable to pay the pecuniary penalty imposed upon her, she was gang-raped. In this case, four people have been arrested and three accused are yet to be traced.
The woman and the youth who is in a relationship with her have been asked to pay a pecuniary penalty of Rs. One Lakh. The youth has been freed after he paid a penalty of Rs. 50,000/-, the woman was able to pay only Rs. 10,000/-. Because she was unable to pay the entire penalty, she was forcibly taken to a nearby forest, and seven people gang-raped her.
There are numerous incidents that the media never get to know. In many cases, rape victims are too scared to file a complaint. Also, kangaroo courts are quite common in rural Bengal because the ruling Trinamool Congress is encouraging its activists to take law in their hands.
In 2018, West Bengal earned the dubious distinction of being the State with the most number of recorded incidents of acid attacks, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report.