Panel quotes witness on Murthal rapes

Even as the Haryana government is getting ready to deal with another round of jat agitation from June 5, the state administration has reportedly come in for severe criticism in the report submitted by former Uttar Pradesh (DGP) Prakash Singh, who had been entrusted with the job to probe the acts of omission and commission by the officials.

As many as 30 people were killed and 320 were injured in the violence while property worth thousands of crores of rupees was destroyed.

To the embarrassment of the state government, some media reports also point out that despite the state government’s claims that no rapes took place on February 22 in Murthal, amicus curiae Anupam Gupta has told the high court that the Prakash Singh Committee report has a mention about the alleged gangrapes. He reportedly said that Amrik Singh, the owner of an eatery at Murthal, had told the committee that he had seen a rush of women with their clothes in tatters. The government’s status report on the issue says something else. SIT chief Mamta Singh reportedly told the court that the police interrogated the dhaba owner, who broke down during the six-hour interrogation but denied that the rapes took place.

Reports suggest the findings of panel highlight how the police and the state administration had failed to foresee the events during the agitation.