Four months after first reported that several women were raped in the fields near the National Highway in Murthal, Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana High court said that there is “no doubt” that this horrific crime did take place when the state was besieged by Jat violence.
The admission came at a hearing in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which pulled up the Haryana government for seeking more time to ‘collect more facts’ in the Murthal gangrape case.
The Court also directed the government to produce Part II of the Prakash Committee report during the next hearing. The Haryana Government claimed before the court that it had got fresh leads in the case.
As the case came up for hearing, the division bench of Justice S S Saron and Justice Lisa Gill, the Bench observed, “Earlier there was reluctance on your part to even register an FIR. But now you have accepted that rape had taken place.’’ “Let’s not deviate from the main path, which is identification of the victim and ensuring justice. This time, things had gone too far. We want result,’’ the Bench said.
The Division Bench observed in the open court, “There can be no doubt (of rape). Even they (Haryana) are not denying it.”
In June, the Prakash Singh committee probing the violence during the Jat stir in Haryana submitted a report to High Court that confirmed the ‘mass rape’ incident during the agitation.
Earlier, the High Court slammed the Haryana government for seeking more time to collect facts and also directed them to produce the second part of the Prakash Singh Committee report on July 7, the next date of hearing.
he women were allegedly pulled out of their cars, stripped and gang-raped in nearby fields. The victims later reached a nearby popular dhaba and sought help.
Earlier, visuals of torn women’s clothing, including inner wear had surfaced from the alleged crime site in Murthal.
However, the rape reports were earlier dismissed by the Haryana Police who claimed that women’s inner wear could have fallen out from bags of the commuters who were stopped and chased away by the Jat protesters during the agitation.
