LUCKNOW, India, June 16 (UPI) -- A Muslim council of elders in a northern Indian village has ordered a woman to marry her father-in-law, whom she accused of raping her.
The 28-year-old woman reportedly was raped when she was alone at home in Charthawal in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the BBC reported Wednesday.
When the victim, a married woman and the mother of five, reported the crime to the local community council, she was told to go to her family's home for seven months and 10 days to become pure. The council ordered her to become the wife to her father-in-law and mother to her husband after she returns.
The council said that under Islamic law the rape has nullified her marriage.
However, a top Muslim body in India has rejected the argument, saying it is not valid under Sharia, or Islamic, law and that the local council had no authority to order such a punishment.
"Under the Sharia law ... if her father-in-law has raped her, he should be sentenced to death," a representative for the Muslim body said.
A senior police officer told the BBC that police have now filed charges against the woman's father-in-law.
