The rights group Amnesty International has called on Indian authorities to ensure the safety of two young women after their local village council ordered them to be raped and paraded naked after their brother eloped with a married woman.
The unelected all-male village council in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, on July 30 ordered that a woman, 23, and her sister, 15, be raped and paraded naked with their faces blackened after their brother ran away with a woman from the village’s dominant Jat caste.
The sisters and their family, from the lower Dalit caste, have since fled the village and are hiding in New Delhi.
Earlier this month, the older sister filed a petition before India’s Supreme Court seeking protection for her family so they can return to their home.
On August 18, the Supreme Court ordered Uttar Pradesh authorities to reply to the petition by September 15.
But one of their brothers told Amnesty: “After we went to the Supreme Court, the villagers are even more aggressive.”
“In the panchayat [council], the Jat decision is final. They don’t listen to us. The police don’t listen to us. The police said anyone can be murdered now,” he said.
Amnesty said the sisters’ father has also lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, alleging harassment by the police and the dominant caste family.
It said the family were also concerned for the safely of the Jat woman who eloped with the brother.