There’s one more reason in the world to hate Khap Panchayats. In a bizarre ruling that’s caught the attention of Amnesty International, a Khap Panchayat in Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh passed a diktat ordering the rape of 23-year old Meenakshi Kumari and her 15-year-old sister.
The rape of the two sisters was ordered as punishment for their brother, who eloped with a married woman.
Amnesty International has started a campaign to sign a petition called ‘Two sisters to be raped as punishment – demand justice’. The petition says, ” An unelected all-male village council in India has ordered that 23-year-old Meenakshi Kumari and her 15-year-old sister are raped. They also ordered for the sisters to be paraded naked with blackened faces. Demand that the local authorities intervene immediately .”
According to The Quint , the Supreme Court of India declared Khaps to be Illegal in 2011, but these all-male, convoluted and perverse bodies still exist in places where the local government is too far away to be effective.