Ramanagara: While leaders keep talking of women empowerment here is a humiliating instance of self-appointed lawmakers who demanded that a rape victim pay a fine of Rs 20,000 if she was to be socially accepted in the village.

Aged 18, the victim, an orphan and now a mother of a male child had been raped when she was 16. Following this, her brother had disowned her and a Child Welfare Committee shifted her to a State Girls’ Home in Mysuru. She was subsequently shifted to a girls’ home in Ramanagara when she turned 18.

Following the khap panchayat’s diktat delivered a week ago the victim who has been trying to cough up the money to pay the fine has sought help from the district administration in the matter.