Image copyright AP Image caption Public protests have continued since the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi in December 2012 
 
 A teenage girl in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has been raped in apparent revenge for an alleged assault on another woman, police say. 
 
 Three people were arrested, including a village head who is accused of approving the alleged crime. 
 
 The 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped this week after her brother was accused of assaulting a woman. 
 
 Violence against women remains deeply entrenched while calls to address the problem have grown in recent years. 
 
 Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. 
 
 The government tightened laws on sexual violence last year after widespread protests following that attack. 
 
 'Retaliation' 
 
 In the latest incident, the village head was arrested along with the alleged rapist himself and the brother of the girl. 
 
 "This rape happened out of retaliation," Jharkhand police chief Rajiv Kumar told the BBC. 
 
 "The day before, on 6 July, the wife of the accused was the victim of misbehaviour on the part of the girl's brother. The head of the village was instrumental in provoking this rape on the victim." 
 
 The girl was taken to hospital after the attack and has given a statement to the police. 
 
 Mr Kumar said he had never heard of any case like it on his watch, but this is the the latest in a string of gruesome incidents involving the rape of young girls in India. 
 
 In May two teenage girls found hanging from a tree in a village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh had been allegedly gang-raped. 
 
 Earlier this year, a 20-year-old tribal woman was gang-raped in eastern West Bengal state - allegedly on the orders of village elders who had objected to her relationship with a man. ||||| NEW DELHI (AP) — A 14-year-old girl was dragged into a forest and raped on the orders of a village council in remote eastern India in retaliation for a sex assault blamed on her brother, her family and police said Friday. 
 
 Jitendra Singh, a top local police official, said two men have been arrested in the rape case. They include the village headman and the main suspect, identified as the husband of the woman who was allegedly molested by the victim's brother. 
 
 The victim's brother has also been arrested on charges of molestation. 
 
 The girl's mother told CNN-IBN news channel that she pleaded with the council and other villagers when they ordered the rape but no one listened. 
 
 "We kept begging them. We begged with folded hands but they would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest," she said. 
 
 The attack took place after midnight on Sunday in a small village in Jharkhand state's Bokaro district. 
 
 "They attacked her in retaliation and we are taking this case very seriously," Singh said, adding that police expect to complete the investigation and file charges in the next few days. 
 
 Across much of rural India, deeply conservative local councils wield great power. They can pass decrees on any subject they choose — from how women should dress to whether young lovers deserve to live or die. They usually enforce strict social norms about marriage and gender roles. 
 
 In January, a council of elders in West Bengal state had ordered the gang rape of a 20-year-old woman as punishment for falling in love with the man from a different community. 
 
 The village councils are often the only practical means of delivering justice in areas where local governments are either too far away or too ineffective to settle disputes. Their power is often derived from the fact that they can order that villagers be ostracized for ignoring their decrees. 
 
 In some of the most extreme cases, the councils have sanctioned so-called honor killings, usually against men and women suspected of out-of-wedlock sex or marrying outside the community.
– A girl has been raped in northern India after a village council ordered the crime as payback for her brother's actions, according to police and her family. The Wall Street Journal reports the teen's brother stands accused of trying to sexually assault the wife of Birju Pasi, with the Jharkhand police chief telling the BBC the wife was "the victim of misbehavior on the part of the girl's brother." He says the girl, 14, was raped Monday by Pasi "out of retaliation" and that "the head of the village was instrumental in provoking this rape on the victim." Both men have been arrested, as has the girl's brother. The girl's mother tells the AP, "We begged with folded hands but [the village council] would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest." A police rep says that her father later took her to a police station, her clothes "smeared with blood." The Journal notes that unelected village councils, like the one in question, are common in India, though they are illegal. The case is just the latest in a string of disturbing rapes in India. Police announced this week they will exhume the bodies of two teenage girls who were gang-raped and hanged in May in order to perform autopsies.