Girl Who Challenged Village Elders Found Dead in India

Police suspect she was raped and murdered
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2014 2:20 PM CDT
Girl Who Challenged Village Elders Found Dead in India
In this file photo from May, activists in New Delhi hold candles during a vigil to protest the gang rape of two teenage girls.   (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Another suspected rape and murder of a teenage girl in India, this time a 15-year-old who had the nerve to question village elders about the treatment of her father. As Euro News reports, the elders in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal summoned the father over his failure to repay a loan. When the girl tried to intervene to prevent him from being beaten, the elders ordered her to spit on the ground and lick it up, and threatened her with "dire consequences," family members tell the BBC.

Her semi-clothed body was found the next day on railroad tracks near her village, and police suspect she had been gang-raped before being killed. Autopsy results are pending. Three men have been arrested, though no charges have been filed yet, reports AFP. The news agency explains that village elders act as a sort of "parallel legal system" in parts of rural India. In July, a girl was ordered raped in retaliation for something her brother had done. (More India stories.)

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