Author: Sukumar Mahato
Publication: The Times of India
Date: November 3, 2006
Raped on knife point in front of her four
children, while her husband, a mason, was away to Bangalore on work, there
wasn't much Rehna (name changed) could do on the night of July 25. The ordeal
that started then for the woman continues to haunt her life till now, making
her a victim of one wrong after another.
It came as no balm for the scars of the heinous
crime when a kangroo court of Kantabagan village at Behrampore in West Bengal,
decided that Rehna must marry her rapist Monsur Mallick and divorce her husband.
Though she defied the orders of the village chiefs who convened the court,
they remained adamant. There was no way she could stay with her husband any
more, she was told.
The kangaroo court also ordered the rapist
to pay Rs 18,000 in two months. The money was to be kept in the custody of
the village chief and used partly to meet Rehna's divorce cost and partly
to fund the village's development.
