A panchayat in West Champaran district of Bihar ordered a 60-year-old man, accused of raping a 14-year-old girl several times, to pay Rs 2 lakh and go scot-free.

Another panchayat in Lakhisarai district asked a person, accused of breaking into the house of a woman staying alone, to lick his own spit, pay Rs 25,000 fine and walk free.

The two back-to-back incidents have once again raised the spectre of the panchayats in the state that are increasingly behaving like lawless kangaroo courts, with the local police also hand in glove with them.

The West Champaran incident occurred in Bairati Bariarka panchayat under Bhairoganj police station area on February 2 this year, but came to light on Saturday when videos related to it went viral on social media.

One Mukhlal Sah had hired the 14-year-old girl to help with household chores for a few days in October last year as his wife had undergone surgery. He allegedly raped her on knifepoint during that period and again on various occasions.

Later when the girl became pregnant, Sah forced her for abortion. The victim’s mother came to know about it and approached the women police station and submitted a written complaint. However the police dilly-dallied with it.

Sah came to know that the girl’s family had approached the police and he approached the panchayat. He accepted his crime in front of the panchayat in writing and offered to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the victim by March 31 this year.

However, Sah did not give the money by the said date. Somebody put a video statement of the girl along with the written statement, in which Sah had accepted his crime, on the social media and it went viral. It also prompted Bagaha superintendent of police (SP) Kiran Kumar Gorakh Jadhav into action.

“We have arrested the accused and forwarded him to jail. The station house officer (SHO) of women police station has been suspended and department proceedings have been recommended,” Jadhav told media persons.

The police are also looking for the people, including the elected representatives, who were present at the panchayat meeting.

The Lakhisarai incident occurred at Ejani Ghat panchayat under Birupur police station on the night of March 24. One Bhushan Rajak, a Dalit, allegedly entered the house of a woman staying alone in the neighbourhood with wrong intentions. She raised an alarm following which he fled leaving behind his torch and lungi (waistcloth).

Bhushan was identified with the help of the objects and the sarpanch (panchayat chief judge) Draupadi Devi and her ‘representative’ Arjun Sahni convened a court.

The panchayat court asked the accused to catch hold of his ears and do squats five times, made him lick his own spit from the ground and asked him to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation to the woman. It also advised the two sides not to pursue the matter any further.

The incident went viral on social media on Saturday following which the police also swung into action.

“Two FIRs have been registered in the incident on Saturday,” Lakhisarai SP Sushil Kumar told The Telegraph.

Rajak has registered an FIR against the members of the gram kutchehry (panchayat court) for atrocities perpetrated on him. The victim woman has registered an FIR against Rajak for entering her house with bad intentions. We are investigating the matter and will take appropriate action,” Lakhisarai superintendent of police (SP) Sushil Kumar told The Telegraph.

Though the Bihar government runs training programmes for panchayat representatives, the repeated incidents indicate that they have not been effective.

A senior officer of the panchayati raj department told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity that the “education level of the elected representatives of the panchayats is pathetic and they need intensive training to carry on their work properly instead of training workshops of just a couple of days.”

“The kind of competition in panchayat elections and the powers enjoyed by the elected persons ensure that they keep exceeding their jurisdiction. The police also do not take interest in such matters despite the presence of their robust system of village chowkidars, which works like their eyes and ears,” the official added.