A tribal woman who had accused three youths of gang-raping her has alleged ostracism of her family on a kangaroo court’s orders after she refused to withdraw her police complaint.

The 30-year-old woman from a Birbhum village bordering Jharkhand met district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu on September 24 to seek help, saying her family had been barred even from the village well.

She met additional superintendent of police Subimal Paul later in the afternoon and sought police security.

On September 25, a police team visited the village. “The villagers are not willing to say anything about the purported social boycott,” an officer said.

On September 26, the police appointed two civic volunteers to guard the house where the woman lives with her mother, two children and three brothers. Since then, the family has been able to draw water from the well openly.

“But the social boycott is continuing. No one talks to us,” one of her brothers said.

The woman says three men of her community, residents of a neighbouring village, gang-raped her on July 14 while she was collecting sal leaves in a nearby jungle. She lodged a complaint the following day and the accused were arrested on July 16.

A medical examination at the Suri district hospital confirmed sexual assault, the police said. The kangaroo court was held on September 23, the woman says.

“When I refused to withdraw my police complaint, the ‘court’ announced that if anyone spoke to us, they and my family would be fined Rs 5,000 each,” said the woman, who was married to a man from Jharkhand but has been staying at her parental home for the past few years.

One of her brothers said: “The villagers keep an eye on our home from morning to night. At first, we collected drinking water from the well surreptitiously after midnight. After the civic volunteers arrived, we have been doing so in the evening.”

Rameshwar Soren, a youth from the village, denied any social boycott of the family or any ban on them from using the village well. “The villagers held a meeting but did not issue any order,” he said.

However, Sunil Soren, a tribal leader based in Suri, said: “We have heard about the social boycott of a tribal rape victim.”

Soren, convener of the Birbhum Adivasi Gaonta, an apolitical tribal organisation, added: “We will talk to the villagers against issuing kangaroo court verdicts. Actually, a tribal society trusts meetings led by the village chief to provide solutions to their local problems.”

District magistrate Basu said: “The block development officer has been asked to take necessary action. We’ll ensure the woman faces no problems in her village.”

But the woman’s brother said: “We now live in fear of the villagers taking revenge on us for going to the administration and the police.”

Kangaroo court verdicts enjoy a great deal of importance within tribal communities, tribal leaders in Birbhum said.

In 2014, a tribal girl was gang-raped by 11 people from her community on a kangaroo court’s orders in a village in Labhpur, Birbhum, as punishment for her alleged relationship with a man from a different community.