PUNE: Six people of a caste panchayat have been arrested in Pune district of Maharashtra for allegedly ordering a social boycott of a family, police said on Sunday.
The victim's family had allegedly refused to let the panchayat of the Kanjarbhat community interfere in a property dispute.
An FIR was lodged by a woman from the Kanjarbhat community in Saswad taluka of Pune district claiming the 'jaat' (caste) panchayat had ordered to boycott her family for a period of one year last month.
"The complainant claimed a property dispute cropped up after her father's death between her mother and another woman with whom the deceased was in relationship," a Saswad police station official told reporters.
The dispute reached the caste panchayat but the complainant and her mother refused to appear before it, he said.
"The decision to boycott the complainant and her family for a period of one year was taken on November 3.
The panchayat also ordered the victim family to pay Rs 1 lakh, five goats and five liquor bottles for lifting the boycott and taking them back in the caste," the official said.
Superintendent of Police (Pune rural) Abhinav Deshmukh told PTI that six 'panchs' of the caste panchayat have been arrested and further investigation is underway.
A case has been registered against six to seven members of the caste panchayat at Saswad police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016.