A 15-year-old Dalit girl from Raghunathpur of Sabaila Municipality-12 of Dhanusha, who was gang-raped by four men, and her family have been getting death threats after the survivor refused an ‘offer’ of money to cover up the incident.

The family of the survivor said that the families of the perpetrators were pressurizing the former to “settle the issue within the village” by offering a lump sum of Rs 1,200,000 as “compensation”. 

A group of eight people, including leaders of political parties, had set up a panchayat at a local school in the village last Thursday to settle the incident.

According to the survivor, four people had raped her about a month ago. The minor’s parents and a relative were initially offered Rs 100,000 per person by the perpetrators’ families to settle the issue.

As per the minor’s mother,  after they refused to accept the offer, a Pancha had offered to collect Rs 300,000 per person (rapist) and pay the minor Rs 1,200,000 in total. The rapists had also allegedly threatened to oust the minor’s family from the village of they refused the deal.

“The families of the rapists have been meting out death threats to my parents. Strangers follow me whenever I get out of my house with the aim to intimidate us,” the survivor said.

Two persons are currently in police custody for investigation on the charge of raping the Dalit minor. Spokesperson of District Police Office, Dhanusha, Deputy Superintendent of Police Makendra Mishra said that other perpetrators and six persons believed to be their accomplices were absconding.

The victim’s family complained that the police had failed to arrest all the perpetrators even after more than a month since the incident. “We have informed the police many times that they are roaming freely in the village. But the police have shown their indifference in arresting them,” said the victim’s mother.

Meanwhile, DSP Mishra said police have not been informed about the offer for money and death threats received by the survivor’s family.

The minor girl, who had gone to her sister’s house at Dhanushadham-9, Sayabigha for a wedding party, was surrounded by 14-15 youths near Dharmapur while she was returning to Raghunathpur at around 6:00 pm on August 17.

According to police, the group of men beat up two young boys that were accompanying the minor before taking them hostage on the road. Four men from the group then took the minor some six kilometers away from the road a raped her.

The survivor has said that the men also took a video of the crime and threatened to post the video on Facebook if she told anyone about the rape.