Chaibasa, Jan. 19: Hundreds of villagers of Chakradhrapur division of West Singhbhum yesterday gathered at a meeting called by the traditional tribal heads and awarded death sentence to four youths, who had raped and killed a minor girl at Toklo police station area on January 1. The four accused are absconding.

The meeting, which was held at the village playground, started around 10 am and continued till late evening.

Sources said five youths had raped the minor girl at Rashi Poda village. Anguished villagers had caught one youth and beat him up to death. The rest managed to escape.

The decision to award death sentence was unanimously taken by the village chiefs and villagers.

Toklo police of Chakradharpur subdivision had registered the case against the accused. But, no one has been arrested till now.

The villagers have decided to wait for a week. If the police fail to arrest the youths, within the stipulated time frame, then the villagers would themselves hunt and lynch them, sources said.

A tribal chieftain, Manki Bagun Soy, said: ?The accused must be punished. They were given time to be present at the village meeting. But they didn?t turn up,? said Bagun.

Shuklal Bodra, another village chief, said rapists should be dealt with severely. A senior policeman said the police are trying to arrest the culprits. The West Singhbhum superintendent of police, Naveen Kumar Singh, said, ?The police had conducted raids to arrest the culprits. But, they are at large. We have also intensified raids. We are confident of arresting the culprits within the time frame given by the traditional village heads.?

According to Singh, rapists were in the age group of 20 to 25 and belonged to Pilopada village, a hamlet near the village where they had committed the crime. However, according to the deputy commissioner, Amrendra Pratap Singh, under the tradition village head system, the heads cannot pronounce capital punishment to the guilty.

?They have powers to take decisions on minor offences. But, in cases related to grave crimes, they cannot take any decisions. We shall not allow the traditional village heads to carry out the capital punishment,? the police said.