A 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped by her neighbour in Jharkhand's Palamu district, police said on Saturday.
The incident happened on Tuesday, but the complaint was filed on Saturday as the local panchayat was allegedly preventing the woman and her husband from going to the police station because the accused is the brother-in-law of the 'mukhiya' or village head, they said.
The accused, a 36-year-old man, took the woman's husband to a programme on Tuesday night and returned to the village a while later alone, leaving him there. On returning to the village, he went to the woman's house, gagged her and took her to an isolated place, where he allegedly raped her, police said.
In the meantime, the husband returned, and not finding his wife at home, he started searching for her. He found his wife while the accused was allegedly raping her, they said.
Police said the local panchayat held a series of meetings over the issue, and first offered money to the woman to hush up the case. When she did not agree, she was told to go to her parent's home. The panchayat then decided not to allow the family outside their home at any cost.
However, she somehow managed to go to the Sadar police station along with her husband, and file a complaint, police said.
A hunt was on to arrest the accused, said Additional Superintendent of Police Rishabh Garg.
The woman was sent for a medical examination to the Medinirai Medical College and Hospital.