DHAKA: A 20-year-old woman who says she was gang-raped in a tribal region on orders of a village court has been placed under police protection, along with her family, and will be relocated after being ostracised by villagers.

India officials said on Sunday, reports The Straits Times.

The case has made waves in India, underscoring how sexual violence has become a huge social and political issue after the rape and murder of a physiotherapist on a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012, an attack that sparked nationwide demonstrations.

The tribal woman, recovering in hospital, has told police she was assaulted on Monday night in the Birbhum district of West Bengal state in eastern India as punishment for having a relationship with a man from a different community.

Police said they had arrested 13 men suspected of involvement.

‘The girl wants to go back to another village where her uncle lives in the same district,’ West Bengal women and child welfare minister Shashi Panja told media.

BDST: 1920 HRS, JAN 26, 2014