NCW backs Rahul's claim

May 21, 2011 02:19 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 01:12 am IST - New Delhi

Pritam Singh, a victim of alleged police firing, shows his injured leg to the media at Bhatta-Parsaul village in Greater Noida. File photo

Pritam Singh, a victim of alleged police firing, shows his injured leg to the media at Bhatta-Parsaul village in Greater Noida. File photo

The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Saturday backed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's claim of mass killings and rape by police in Greater Noida villages following protests over land acquisition.

The NCW made allegations of molestation, stripping and rape of women as well as of people being burnt alive and sought a CBI probe to "bring out the truth".

The charge comes just a day after the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said it found no evidence of mass killing of men and rape of women by security forces as alleged by Mr. Gandhi.

Addressing reporters, acting NCW chairperson Yasmeen Abrar, said a team of the Commission that toured affected Bhatta and Parsaul villages, would submit a preliminary report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We have formed a 11-member team headed by me and comprising retired judges and civil society activists which will visit the villages again on Monday and Tuesday, carry out further probe and collect evidence," Ms. Abrar said.

Alleging policemen committed "atrocities" on women after the police-farmers clash over a protest on land acquisition issue, said the villagers stopped short of using the word "rape" but indicated towards that, adding it would be difficult to prove. "Some women alleged that they were raped, but being from a conservative village, they did say it in their own way. They said give the policemen the punishment meted out to rapists," the chairperson said.

They said policemen barged into their homes, molested them and tore off their clothes. Some of them said they did something more than that. "What do you make of that," she said.

Ms. Abrar said the women showed them burnt homes and haystacks and alleged that people were burnt and tossed there. "One woman said several men were shot and dumped in the mounds." But said the NCW would not share all the evidence they had got with the media.

Going out of her way to keep Rahul Gandhi out of the controversy, Ms. Abrar, however, criticised the Chief Minister Mayawati saying she should have visited the area and understood the "pains of women there". Uttar Pradesh tops in complaints of rape and gangrapes coming to the women's panel, she added.

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