Kolkata, Nov 14 (IANS) A rapist in West Bengal has got away with a "fine" of Rs.4,000 - thanks to a clique of cops and village elders who sat on justice inside a police station and gave the ruling.

According to media reports, self-appointed judges of Hosnabad village in Murshidabad district, about 250 km from here, were in Ranitala police station Sunday and decided that a fine of Rs.4,000 was enough to punish a 17-year-old who raped a Muslim woman married to a deaf and mute man.

The "court" was presided over by sub-inspector Haralal Biswas, who later pleaded that he had done the same under instructions from officer-in-charge Tamal Ghosh.

"Nothing can take place inside a police station without OC's sanction. I oversaw the settlement," he told reporters.

Abdul Alim Sheikh, the father of Saheb, the accused, was present at the meeting and he readily agreed to pay the fine, a fourth of which will be spent on the "development of Hosnabad village".

The woman, a mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old son, will get Rs.3,000.

However, Superintendent of Police Rahul Srivastava has indicated the policemen who took part in the ruling might be punished.

"We will arrest the boy. A case will be initiated against those who held the kangaroo court inside the police station," he said.

On the night of Nov 6, the woman was sleeping in an open veranda with her husband and son when Saheb allegedly sneaked into their premises and raped her. Her deaf and mute husband did not hear her cries.

The couple was taken to a police camp where the woman submitted a written complaint, addressed to the Ranitala officer-in-charge, with the help of the villagers.

The next morning, Saheb was taken to the police station, where he was kept in lock-up till Sunday. Later, a kangaroo court was held and Rs.4,000 was fixed as "fine" for the rape while an attempt was made to prove that the victim had an extra marital relationship with the rapist.

Recently, a 22-year-old woman of Kantabagan village in Murshidabad district, raped in July by a village youth while her husband was away in Bangalore, was asked to divorce her husband and marry her rapist by a rural kangaroo court.

Rehana was raped in front of her four children at knifepoint. The next day she told the villagers about the incident. Her husband, a mason, was informed over telephone.

When the husband returned, the village court ruled that the rapist has to marry the woman.

When the rapist refused to marry her, the kangaroo court ordered him to pay Rehana a "fine" of Rs.18,000 but only after her divorce was through. The village elders branded the victim as a woman of loose morals.