A 14-year-old girl was raped by orders of a village counsel in a remote portion of India Sunday. Police and her family said Friday that the decree was given due to a recent sexual assault of another woman that was blamed on the teenager's brother.

Police said the verdict was given by leaders in the village Swang in Jharkhand state's Bokaro district and she was forced into the nearby forest around midnight Sunday and attacked by several men. The girl's mother told CNN-IBN that she tried to reason with the village counsel, but none of them listened to her appeals.

"We kept begging them," the victim's mother said. "We begged with folded hands but they would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest."

According to a local police official, Jitendra Singh, three men have been arrested in connection with this case. The village leader, Ghosai Pasi, and the main suspect, Birju Pasi, who is the husband of the woman who was allegedly assaulted by the girl's brother, and the victim's brother, Harendra Pasi, have all been taken into custody. Singh said the police would be investigating for the next several days before filing charges.

The shared surname does not correlate to a familial connection, but shared caste.

"They attacked her in retaliation," Singh said. "We are taking this case very seriously."

In India's more remote regions, local councils are common and hold significant power. These groups pass decrees on issues ranging from how women should dress to sentencing people to death. Typically, these community leaders focus on enforcing strict social norms about gender roles.

In some extreme cases, men and women have been put to death in "honor killings," usually for accusations of infidelity or marrying outside the village community.

Although these councils were outlawed by India's Supreme Court, social pressures and generations of traditions allow these unelected leaders to wield power over villagers.