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India gang rape victim, family placed under police protection

A 20-year-old woman who says she was gang-raped in an tribal region on orders of a village court has been placed under police protection, along with her family, and will be relocated after being ostracised by villagers, officials said on Sunday.
The woman, recovering in hospital, has told police she was assaulted on Monday night in the Birbhum district of West Bengal state in eastern India as punishment for having a relationship with a man from a different community. Police said they had arrested 13 men suspected of involvement.
“The girl wants to go back to another village where her uncle lives in the same district,” West Bengal Women and Child Welfare Minister Shashi Panja told Reuters.
“She is scared of going back to the village where she was gang-raped since the villagers there do not want her back. The girl’s family is also under protection of the police now.”
Many villagers have denied the girl was raped, according to local media reports.
A Reuters photographer who visited the West Bengal village said many residents said they did not want the girl to return. The house where the family used to live was found abandoned.
Police say that the woman’s male companion was tied up in the village square, while the assault on the woman was taking place in a mud house. The man has now gone missing from the village, relatives say.
The couple were ordered to pay a fine of 25,000 rupees ($400), said the victim’s mother, adding that the village head then ordered the rape of her daughter.

• India