Refuting claims by some activists that two tribal girls of Chhattisgarh were gang raped by C-60 commandos in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, the girls appeared before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday and denied any such incident.
The girls, who belonged to the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh bordering Gadchiroli, were “detained” for a night by a team of C-60 commandos on January 20 in Hiddur and Murewada forests of Gadchiroli after an encounter between Maoists and the C-60 team.
However, some activists from Gadchiroli had launched a campaign against the police alleging that the girls were “gang raped” by C-60 commandos that night.
The girls, who were lodged in a correction home on Sunday after a special sitting of the High Court, were brought to the court on Monday.
Advocate Gayatri Singh, who appeared for the brother of one of the girls, alleged that the two girls were “under tremendous pressure” from the police and would not speak the truth.
Testify in judges’ chamber
The Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Indira Jain, however, asked both the girls to come to the judges’ chamber to testify. Both “emphatically denied any such act by the police”.
The court also held that the girls were “compelled” by the sarpanch of Jambia Gatta village, Sheela Gota, to inform the petitioner, Gillu Ram Gota, about “the incident which never took place”.
The High Court permitted both the girls to go home with their relatives.
Mrs. Gota and her husband were arrested by the police on Saturday from the office of advocate Nihal Singh Rathod in Nagpur. Some more activists, who were part of the campaign against the police, were also arrested in the last two days. They were granted bail by a Gadchiroli court on Monday.
The police have called the allegations of rape against the C-60 commandos “the handiwork of some Maoist sympathisers.”
