nable to trace any victim in the alleged mass rape case in Murthal village in Haryana during the Jat agitation, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has urged possible complainants to approach them.
“The NCW has so far been able to contact eight families whose cars were burnt down or damaged. Of these, two families had women members. But all of them denied being sexually assaulted or seeing anyone else being raped,” said NCW member Rekha Sharma.
The NCW was able to get through to six truck drivers and cleaners whose vehicles were set ablaze by the violent mob around the same time and place as the alleged rapes, but they too maintained there was no sexual abuse, she claimed. The reason she believes that these persons could have been tutored is because most had already received phone calls from the police before she could speak to them.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We promise complete confidentiality to those who approach us. We can be reached at 011-26944823/4,” she said a day after visiting Murthal.
Efforts are on to trace eyewitnesses in the alleged crime that, according to a report in The Tribune , took place around 3 a.m. on Monday. Apart from the authors of the news report, an RTI activist claims to have spoken to “eyewitnesses”.
“Four of the six persons I interacted with in the two villages near Murthal said the mob dragged the women into the fields, tore their clothes and ‘made sexual advances’ towards them. But they stopped short of using the ‘rape’ word,” said activist P.P. Kapoor.
ADVERTISEMENT
Claiming they feared for their safety, he told The Hindu : “If there is an external investigating agency, they will be willing to reveal everything.”
On Wednesday, the Punjab & Haryana High Court had taken a suo motu cognisance of the news report of the alleged incident. “Today [Thursday] we requested the court to order a CBI probe or at least transfer the officials of the riot-torn area to ensure a fair investigation in the case, but the court said it may do so in the due course of time,” said lawyer Utsav Bains. He said the Court will wait for some complainants to appear before giving orders.
Meanwhile, the police on Thursday claimed their questioning of the locals and possible victims has suggested that the report was “incorrect”. Yashpal Singhal, DGP (Haryana), however, added that proper investigations would be conducted if any complainant comes forward at any point of time.
The Hindu had visited Murthal on Wednesday and interacted with dozens of locals across three villages in bid to get the accounts of eyewitnesses. Each of them, however, denied any such incident.
The Tribune had reported that at least 10 women commuters passing through Murthal had been raped in the fields by the highway around 3 a.m. on Monday by a 30-odd mob.
‘We requested the court to order a CBI probe or at least transfer officials of the area for a fair investigation’