KOLKATA, India, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A Muslim village council in India's West Bengal state has ordered a mother of four, allegedly raped by a local man, out of the village.
The Panchayat or the village council in Behrampur ended the victim's marriage in light of the alleged attack three months ago and ruled she could neither live with her husband nor enter the predominantly Muslim village, about 120 miles from the state capital Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, reports the Times of India.
The council said the woman and her husband must pay the equivalent of about $1,100 if they wished to remain together but the husband, a laborer, could not come up with the amount.
"I want to keep my wife as it is not her fault, but people are not allowing me to keep her. Who will look after our four children?" her husband told reporters.
The alleged rapist, accused of attacking the woman in front of her children, was fined about $400 but the amount was not paid.
The village council took up the case after the husband's family refused to allow the victim to stay in the house, the report said. She also was turned away from her father's house by her stepmother.
