Evidence shows rapes did occur in Murthal, find culprits: HC to cops
January 20, 2017 08:19
The Punjab and Haryana high court observed on Thursday that the statements of some witnesses and the recovery of women's undergarments indicate that rapes had taken place at Murthal during the Jat quota protests in February 2016.
The court asked the state police special investigation team to find the culprits to instill confidence in the public.
A division bench made these observations in open court. The judges also 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.
The HC has stayed the framing of charges in the rape case being heard in a trial court in Sonipat. 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. The observations came after senior advocate and amicus curiae in the case, Anupam Gupta, accused the SIT of working in lack of good faith and in an unprofessional manner.
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