A 19-year-old girl tribal girl was gang-raped by at least 12 members of the village panchayat as a punishment for having an affair with a man from another community.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam while taking suo motu cognizance of the incident has also issued notice to the West Bengal government over the incident and directed the district judge of Birbhum, where the gangrape took place, to visit the spot and file a report before it within a week.

"It is a very disturbing news. We take suo motu cognizance of it," said Chief Justice Sathasivam as he directed the Birbhum district magistrate to inquire into the matter and submit report in one week.

It is alleged that victim belonging to Labpur village suffered gang rape on the orders of the village head as a punishment for falling in love with a man from a different community.

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old girl tribal girl was gang-raped by at least 12 members of the village panchayat as a punishment for having an affair with a man from another community.

The incident took place in Subalpur village in Birbhum district after a few villagers saw the girl's friend at her house and complained to the headman.

The girl said that she along with her friend was dragged to a gathering where our village headman was also present.

The woman, who is undergoing treatment at the Suri Sadar Hopsital, said she was left at the mercy of the men of her village after she was unable to pay Rs.50,000 as a fine demanded by the morol (headman) for having an affair with a man outside her community.

"The morol ordered that I be enjoyed by the men of the village. Following his orders, at least 10-12 people, including (some) members of a single family, continuously raped me. I lost count of how many times I was raped," said the woman.

While police arrested all 13 people the woman had accused in her complaint, a local court sent the accused to 14 days judicial custody after police did not seek custody nor any public prosecutor appeared.

"Neither any public prosecutor appeared nor police sought custody of the accused. So the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Bolpur, Pijush Ghosh sent them to 14 days jail custody," victim's counsel Dilip Ghosh said.

Hospital authorities described her condition to be stable but critical while Women and Child Welfare Minister Shashi Panja, who called up the victim, has assured all help from the government including monetary compensation.

src:Yahoo