An NHRC team is understood to have ruled out rape of women by policemen in two villages of Greater Noida debunking a claim by Rahul Gandhi but the central government cast doubts over its veracity.
A fact-finding team of the National Human Rights Commission submitted a report to Chairperson Justice K G Balakrishnan in which the allegation that policemen had committed rape during farmers’ agitation in Bhatta-Parsaul villages in May was found to be not correct, sources said.
The report is yet to be considered by the full Commission.
A “pained” NHRC has sent the team to investigate allegations of violence over land acquisition and complaints of police atrocities in Greater Noida. Four persons, including two policemen, were killed in farmers-police clashes and firing in Bhatta-Parsaul villages.
Mr. Gandhi, after a visit to the village, had claimed that women had been raped, people thrashed and houses destroyed.
Reacting to the report, the central government cast doubts on its veracity, saying one report cannot negate all the charges.
“Other agencies have gone and confirmed that women were treated in a way which we are all against. Let us see.
Views and counter views are coming. Let me see from where these reports have come,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters.
Asked specifically about the National Human Rights Commission giving a clean chit to the UP government on these allegations, Ms. Soni maintained that the manner in which the body had conducted its study may have to be looked into.
