In yet another incident of malfunctioning of Khap Panchayat, a 21-year-old youth forced to commit suicide in tribal dominated Khajuria village situated in central Gujarat after Panchayat ordered the victim’s family a fine of Rs 1.70 lakh for falling in love with a girl from the same village.
21-year-old tribal youth Santosh Bhulabhai Rathava, a resident of Khajuria village near Chhota Udepur in central Gujarat fell in love with a girl belonging to the same village. However, the girl’s family was against their affair and as a result of it the couple decided to flee from the village and begun a new life.
As the couple eloped from the village the girl’s relatives filed a complaint against the boy and his family with Khap Panchayat for ‘abducting’ the girl. Acting on the complaint, the members of the Panchayat with the help of the girl’s family members somehow managed to find whereabouts of the couple and brought them back to village.
later on the members of the Khap Panchayat called on an emergency meeting to solve the dispute between the two families. Instead of coming on to some logical conclusion, surprisingly the Panchayat ordered Rathava’s family to pay hefty fine worth Rs 1.70 lakh for their son’s ‘criminal act’ of falling in love with a girl belonging to the same village.
As it was not enough, the members of Panchayat also decided to lock Santosh in Gram Panchayat’s office till his family deposit the amount. Knowing the fact that his family wouldn’t be able to pay the hefty amount, Santosh decided to end his life and strangulate himself with internet cable inside the office.
Information about death of the tribal youth spread in the areas like wildfire and as result of it finally the local police too came to know about the incident. According to investigation officer VM Chauhan the police was probing in the incident and would file a case against at least five people. It is worth mentioning that couple of months back similar incident of malfunctioning of Khap Panchayat in Devalia village of Chhota Udepur tehsil.