A rapist punished by people in Kishanganj

Kishanganj, Mar 11 (UNI) In an extremely bizarre incident, a group of people from a minority community tried to punish an alleged rapist in accordance with the 'sheriat' laws .

According to reports, a 10-year-old minor girl was allegedly raped by head Maulvi Moibur Rahman of Touheed Ulema at Belwa, some 10 km from here recently.

The local people of the community held a congregation this week to discuss the sordid matter and mete out severe punishment to the offender.

Maulvi Moibur Rahman was thrashed by some persons and severe injuries was inflicted on him. He was rushed to local MGM Medical College and Hospital. Later his condition deteriorated and was shifted to a hospital at Siliguri in West Bengal.

The particular community congregated once again on Thursday at Chhagalia-based Madarsa and in the presence of nearly 1,000 community persons decided to give, at least, 40 whiplashes to the offender in accordance with the 'sheriat'laws. The offender,though critical but was also asked to pay a fine of Rs 41,000 to the rape victim, general secretary of Shersabadi Biradari Abdul Ghafoor said.

The rape victim's father Jamil Akhtar was, however, not satisfied with the punishment. The victim has lodged an FIR with Kishanganj police station for outraging her modesty.

Police swung into action only after an FIR was formally lodged.

Superintendent of Police(SP) Sunil Kumar Sinha said, ''Police will certainly arrest the alleged offender in this rape case.'' Meanwhile, Touheed Ulema chairman Rasheed Salafi said the charges of rape by the head maulvi was not true and ''a deep-rooted conspiracy has been hatched by some rival institution to defame the institution.'' UNI