Almost a year after reports of women being gangraped near Murthal in Haryana during the agitation by the Jat community over reservations, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday observed that the statements of some witnesses and the recovery of women’s undergarments indicate that rapes did take place.
The court blamed the state police special investigation team (SIT) for the way it was proceeding in the case before directing the trial court not to frame charges in the matter. The stay order will remain in operation till the case comes up for resumed hearing before the High Court in February end.
The court also asked the SIT to find the culprits to instill confidence in the public. The observations by the division bench came in open court.
The judges, Justice SS Saron and Justice Darshan Singh, further observed that two witnesses, one of them a taxi driver, had said that women were dragged out of their vehicles, which indicated that rapes had taken place.
Meanwhile, Haryana Police filed an FIR after the HC took suo motu cognisance of newspaper reports.
Police had accused five alleged rioters of rape, but the charge was dropped as their blood did not match semen samples from the undergarments.
The HC also asked the SIT to file an affidavit before the trial court that rape charges hadn't been dropped and were still under investigation.
Senior advocate and amicus curiae in the case, Anupam Gupta, alleged that had the Sonipat trial judge not informed the high court about rape charges being dropped against the five accused, the SIT would have closed the case much earlier.
He also opposed the SIT’s attempts to record the statement of one of the witnesses, Raj Kumar, before the trial court under CrPC Section 164.
The report cited Gupta saying that the SIT was acting as the defence in the case and making deliberate attempts to drop rape charges in the case. He asked the court to hand the case to CBI.
At this, the bench asked the CBI counsel to inform it whether the agency was ready to probe the case. The CBI counsel said though the agency was overburdened, it would follow the directions of the court.
On the other hand, the counsel for the state government informed the court that the SIT was still probing the case and trying to find the victims and the accused.
The case will come up for hearing on February 28.
Media reports had earlier claimed that at least 10 women were gang raped on the night of February 22 by a group of nearly 40 hooligans during the Jat community`s agitation or reservation. The 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.
Reports also showed visuals of torn women's clothing, including inner wear from the alleged crime site in Murthal. The reports were dismissed by the Haryana Police.
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