Police official C Sudhakar said today that 13 men have been arrested in West Bengal State of India for allegedly gang raping a woman.
The police say the young woman was gang raped on the orders of the village council because she fell in love with a man from a different religion.
Over the past year there has been a widespread outrage over chronic sexual violence in India and government's failure to protect women.
This case is particularly troubling because the alleged rape was sanctioned by a council made up of village elders.
Though these councils are not legally binding in India, they are seen as the will of the local community, and those who flaunt the councils risk being ostracized.
The woman who is in hospital in the state's Birbhum district where doctors say her condition is serious, told the police that the village council in Subalpur village ordered her to pay a fine for having an affair with the man. When her family said they were too poor to pay, the council ordered the gang rape.
She told the police she lost count of how many men raped her during the night-long ordeal.
Subalpur is about 110 miles north of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.
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